


Francis

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Midorima's POV, Slow Build, Wordcount: 30.000-50.000, from "friends" to boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-13 08:45:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3375155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts because Midorima can't play the piano without thinking about Aomine and then things just evolve.</p><p>Or over 38k of self-indulgent aomido.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> For those who opened this fic thinking, "there's no way someone actually wrote so much for this pairing" I really, really did. Started a few weeks ago and well, here we are. Everything's written and I'll be posting the next part in a few days.
> 
> This is dedicated to everyone that has been hearing me complain about how this took over my life for several weeks and also for every shipper of this pairing. They need more love!

It was Sunday and Shintaro was sitting at the piano, looking at it. He had barely played the piano in the weeks following the start of the new school year. He could tell himself it was because he was too busy with school, which asked more of him than middle school, or that he was too focused in improving his basketball, but if there was one thing Shintaro tried to do, that was being honest with himself. So, he knew the real reason he hasn't been playing the piano was because when he thought of it, he didn't just think of the instrument or of the songs he could play and wanted to learn to play. He thought of the person who spent last year listening to him play pretty much every time he practised in school.

It's unfair that Shintaro couldn't play a song without thinking of Aomine, even at home.

It had started in the first year of middle school. When they'd met they hadn't liked each other. They hadn't disliked each other either, they simply hadn't had nothing in common besides a liking of basketball (and even that one wasn't the same; Shintaro at the time had only been curious about the game, while Aomine had already been in love with it).

One day, almost three months into the school year Shintaro had been in the music class of Teiko, playing the piano, something by Bach, and not getting it completely right because he hadn't trained enough for it and perhaps Bach was still too hard for him, but as far as he was concerned, if you trained hard enough, everything was possible, as long as of course your body and mind allowed it.

Someone had entered the class, but he hadn't stopped. Maybe it was someone who also wanted to practise, and if that was the case, then they'd simply have to wait until he was done with the song.

The song ended and the person at the door didn't move. Shintaro could have turned around to see who it was who but truth was he wasn't curious. It wasn't the first time that someone had heard him playing and had decided to hear it a bit closer. He didn't mind it as long as they were quiet, which this person was being.

He moved the music sheet and started on a different melody, this one more simple. It was a bit sadder than the earlier one, but Shintaro didn't mind sad songs. He didn't mind any type of songs, really, because if people had so many type of emotions, why shouldn't music?

The third music he played while the other person was inside the room was funnier, going up and down, and it didn't sound like it was supposed to, but at least it didn't sound as bad as it had two weeks before.

Finally, after two more songs he stopped, ending the melody on a soft note, which he always did. He didn't like to leave the room with a bam on his ears.

He turned around and couldn't completely disguise his surprise at finding Aomine sitting against the door with his eyes closed.

He opened them and blinked twice. “You play well,” was the only thing he said before getting up and leaving. If he'd stayed Shintaro was pretty sure he would have scoffed and said, “of course” so maybe it was for the best that the other teen had left in such a hurry.

Shintaro wondered if later that day Aomine would say anything about hearing him play during practise, but it came and went and Aomine was the same as ever, only talking to him when necessary.

Two weeks passed and Shintaro had almost forgotten about the incident (he couldn't completely erase the calm look on Aomine's face from his mind because calm was not a word he would apply to the other teen) when someone once again entered the music room while he was playing, this time trying a bit of Mozart and for only a second he wondered if it was Aomine again, but didn't allow himself to turn around.

He continued to play for another fifteen minutes without the other person making a beep and finally, after ending with a soft tone, he turned around and there Aomine was. Sitting against the door with his eyes closed just like he had been two weeks before. Once again he opened his eyes slowly and blinked. This time he didn't say anything before getting up and leaving and Shintaro wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad.

Still, he got used to having Aomine in the room. It didn't happen every single week, sometimes not even every month but it was nice. Most times he didn't speak before leaving but Shintaro had gotten used to it. Aomine wasn't the sort of person to keep quiet if he didn't enjoy something.

First year came and went and Aomine continued to go and listen to him play a bit more often. Then third year came and the days Shintaro practised without him in the room were less than the ones where he was alone.

They almost never talked but he started being able to feel Aomine's moods. He wasn't as relaxed as he used to be, his face was almost now permanently drawn on a frown and he didn't play basketball like he used to. Oh, he was still one of the best, but the love, the passion that had been there once... Shintaro wouldn't say that it was gone now, more that it was hidden extremely deep, and he didn't know how to bring it back out and no, he didn't want to question too much why exactly he wanted Aomine to go back to his old self. It wasn't like Shintaro hadn't changed in these last three years as well. But his love for basketball had only increased, not diminished.

Still, sometimes Shintaro played songs to match Aomine's moods, and sometimes he played something completely different – one time he could feel the tension radiating from the blue haired teen so he had played the Simpsons intro, a show he knew Aomine watched (and which Shintaro did not and what did it stay that he had learnt the song just for the other teen?).

The year passed and Shintaro never did quite figure out exactly why sometimes he played to match Aomine's moods and sometimes he tried to change them (and usually succeeding, he could see Aomine leaving the room much more relaxed that when he'd go in, but usually that mood was gone by the time practise started; that was, of course, if he saw the other during that time).

They had probably talked more during practise that in that music classroom but it wasn't playing basketball that brought Aomine to Shintaro's mind. No, it was playing the piano, and he didn't like it. He didn't like that choosing a sad or happy song, a silly or serious one, Aomine always came to his mind. He played basketball for himself, because he wanted to be the best, and while he didn't play the piano to become the best – that would probably mean he would have to leave basketball to focus more on it –, he still wanted to play for himself and not for others. Not that he sometimes didn't play for others, there were certain songs that reminded him of his parents, of his sister and sometimes of his team-mates, being the current or past ones, but Aomine was present in almost every single song and it was weird because that hadn't happened on the years he'd had him as an audience. So why was it happening now?

“Are you okay, onii-chan?” His younger sister, Sachiko, asked when she saw he was sitting at the piano, not actually playing it (and had been doing it, or not doing it, for almost ten minutes – he hoped she hadn't noticed it).

“Yes; I just can't think of anything to play.”

Sachiko's eyes glinted at that. “I can find you a song!”

Shintaro frowned but didn't see a reason to say no. One, because Sachiko's great love was music and she listening to musicians from all over the world (on Monday she could be listening to French music and on Tuesday to Argentinian) and two, he knew that while saying no wouldn't exactly make Sachiko sad, it would bother her for at least some minutes and Shintaro didn't like to see that. So he nodded and she quickly ran upstairs to her bedroom.

For the next five minutes he continued to stare at the piano until Sachiko came back down holding some music sheets.

“Francis” was the title of the song and its band was “Coeur de Pirate”. He'd never heard of them but then again that wasn't surprising, since he barely listened to music that wasn't over a few centuries old.

It wasn't exactly a hard song to play and after some minutes he got the hang of it. In those minutes he did not think of Aomine, instead focusing on the places his fingers had to go and on his sister's breathing, who was sitting on the couch and was smiling at him with her eyes closed, moving her head to the music. It really was a shame that while she adored music, she had no ear for the notes, not playing any instrument. But it had never bothered her; she'd always said it was always like magic.

After less than half an hour he had already mastered the song, so he played one last time from the beginning.

“That was really good, onii-chan,” Sachiko said with a smile, to which Shintaro responded with his own. He wasn't a smiling person, but if anyone was able to make him smile then it was his twelve-year old sister.

“Would you like me to get you another song?”

“Perhaps tomorrow, Sachiko.”

She nodded an got up, but didn't immediately leave the music room. She opened her mouth but didn't say anything, and eventually just closed it with a sigh. Shintaro had no idea what she had been about to say, but looking at the clock he noticed it was only four o'clock and that he was done with his homework, so there was no reason for him to not spend time with his sister.

“Would you like to play a board game?”

Sachiko gave an excited squeal and immediately ran to her room to find them a game. Shintaro liked to play shogi and sometimes cards, but he wasn't a big fan of board games. Still, it was the type Sachiko most adored and well, not like it would hurt him to play one for a couple of hours – as long as it wasn't Monopoly, of course. Last time they'd played that she hadn't spoken to him for almost two days.

In the end she brought with her the game Shintaro gave her for her tenth birthday. It's “guess who?” but instead of the original pieces, he had changed them all with cards of Harry Potter characters and made a list of questions – instead of asking things like “does he have dark hair?” one had to ask things like, “can he see the Thestrals?” and for his birthday she had then given him a “guess who?” game as well, except with Lord of the Rings characters, and the questions were just like these ones, except she had made them with their father's help, because he was the only one in the family that liked Lord of the Rings as much as Shintaro (perhaps even more, since he even knew how to speak some words in Sindarin, more than Shintaro could claim to know).

They played for over an hour and mostly didn't talk, except when Sachiko made a commentary. After more than ten games they finally stopped and his sister had a big smile.

“This was really fun. Thank you for playing with me,” she said, showing off the tooth that's missing right in the front and Shintaro pushed his glasses up his nose, just like he always did when he was feeling embarrassed.

“I enjoyed it too,” he answered in a low tone. He's not one to usually express his feelings but Sachiko's smile makes it more than worth it. He's aware that since Teiko he had stopped spending as much time with her as he used to; sometimes because of basketball and other times because like every teenager he thought he was superior to her because of being older, but he didn't want to continue like that because he was aware that if he started pulling away, the day would come that she would simply stop trying to pull him back, and he didn't want that. “We should do it again sometimes.”

“Yes! And I'll find more songs for you,” she said and finally left with the game.

Shintaro smiled as he watched her go and decided to go read a book in his room. There was a hoop on the garden that he sometimes used to practise and he could do that but he had practise yesterday and would have it again tomorrow and he knew better than to push his body too much. One day a week to rest is just as important as spending the rest of the days practising, and it's not like he didn't do anything – he has a work-out regiment for Sundays which last more than an hour and playing the piano also helps his fingers.

In the meantime, he'll just try to make sure Aomine continued out of his head just as he had been since he'd started playing “Francis”.

.

Another week went by and on Thursday Captain Otsubo told them they would be having a practise match with Too two Saturdays from then.

“Midorima; I don't want you shooting from the half-line or beyond that,” Coach Nakatani said and Shintaro nodded. While shooting from farther back would not only make it easier to win but also scare their opponents, after all, what can one do against someone that can shoot from the other side of the court?, he's aware that this is only a practise match and while he took every game serious, friendly or not, he knew they couldn't show all their trump cards right away. Besides, he hasn't completely mastered shooting from the other side of the court yet and he never shoots unless he's sure the ball is going to enter the hoop.

The coach continued to give them some pointers and finally left them, with most of the team following.

Only Shintaro and Takao remained. In the beginning he'd been annoyed at Takao, but he'd gotten used to him. He still didn't like how the other teen called him Shin-chan, but he has been quietly growing on him (not that Shintaro would ever tell him that).

Shintaro practised his shooting, mostly from the mid-court line because the farther he shoot from, the more energy he spent, while Takao dribbled and made some shootings of his own. Shintaro didn't take his attention off what he was doing so he couldn't say how the other's practise was going, except when he heard exclamations, sometimes sad, sometimes happy.

After shooting a bit over thirty times Shintaro went to him and they played a bit of one-on-one. Shintaro's best weapon was his shooting but that didn't mean he didn't have to improve on everything else.

Finally, after more than forty minutes they stopped and walked to the locker room, slowly getting undressed.

“So, are you excited to play against your old team mate?” Takao asked, not turning from where he was looking at his locker and his tone was trying too hard to make sure it sounded like an innocent question.

Shintaro only grunted because while he was excited, he was also afraid, not of losing, but of finding an even sadder and angry Aomine and he didn't want that. He just wanted things to go back to how they were before they had all started to concentrate only on their individual skills and Shintaro knew he was no better than them but he still wanted that camaraderie that had been there before. Sometimes he wondered if he was going to be able to have that with Shutokou.

“Earth to Shin-chan!” Takao's voice raised him from his ramblings and he looked behind. Takao was dressed and had his backpack on one shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him. “You don't sound very excited.”

“It's just a practise game,” he said which was only half-way true because any practise game with one ex-member of Teiko could never be just a practise game.

Takao just continued to look at him with an arched eyebrow, telling him without words exactly what he thought of that answer. But luckily he didn't say anything.

They left the locker room in silence and Shintaro sat on the bicycle, getting ready to pedal them. This was not the most comfortable means of transport, but it was good for the legs. Takao jumped on the back without a word, which was how the entire ride went which didn't bother him.

He left Takao at his house with the cart and walked the rest of the way to his house. It had been a surprise to find one of his team mates living less than ten minutes away from him, but in the end it had more advantages than disadvantages (the disadvantages being Takao appearing at his house unannounced).

He had only just slipped his shoes off when he heard someone running downstairs (that someone being his sister since their mother never ran, unless it was an emergency, and their father couldn't, seeing as he was in a wheelchair). He continued making his way slowly to the music room, where he found her extending him a music sheet. For the last week she had been giving him a new song everyday and while Shintaro came home most days pretty tired, he still played it for at least ten minutes. And since they were all things he had never heard before (mostly from American bands), they never made him think of Aomine, which was a bonus. Slowly the other teen was slipping from his mind, which was just what he wanted. He couldn't afford distractions.

This time the song was called “Titanium” and even he knew this one. Well, knew by ear, he had never actually tried to play it.

He put the sheet on the piano and sat down. Sachiko did what she always did – sat on the sofa, looking at him with wide eyes.

The song wasn't very hard, just like everything Sachiko had been giving him for the last few days, but he still enjoyed it. On the fourth time he was starting the music his sister started singing. She was doing it in such a low voice, that he could barely understand the words, but as he reached the refrain she sang with more strength and who'd knew his sister could actually sing? She didn't reach every note correctly, but it still wasn't unpleasant to hear.

He played the song two more times, with Sachiko always accompanying him and her voice slowly grew stronger until it was a bit louder than the piano.

Once he finally ended, he heard clapping and turned to the entrance of the room where their parents were standing (well, their mother was standing, their father was sitting).

“That was wonderful, you two. You should do it more often; you're really good,” their mother said and Shintaro couldn't help the blush that graced his features at that. Glancing over at Sachiko, he saw her having the same reaction and it was really not a nice sight seeing someone with green hair go red in the face.

“It's good to hear you playing again, Shin. I was starting to get afraid you were going to give up piano for basketball,” their father said looking at him and Shintaro shook his head.

“Anyway, you should freshen up; dinner's almost ready,” their mother said and left quietly, being followed by Sachiko, who ran to her room as fast as she'd left it.

“It really is good to hear you,” his father said and Shintaro frowned at that. He'd only spent two weeks away from the piano. As if he could heard his thoughts (which he sincerely wished he couldn't), his father continued, “last year when you played the piano, you played it with more feeling. Even more than when you were playing basketball.”

Shintaro only frowned harder at that. He didn't remember playing any differently last year than he did now. Eventually he decided to ask, “and how am I playing now?”

“Wonderful as always,” his father said and gave him a crooked smile when Shintaro raised an eyebrow at him, because they both knew that hadn't been what he'd meant. “There's feeling in what you're playing, you're enjoying it, but... it's still not like it was. Whatever it was that made you play like that last year, you should look for it again.”

“What if... what if it can't be found again?” Shintaro asked before his father could leave the living room.

“I don't really believe there's anything that can't be found again, do you?” His father asked in return and Shintaro went back at frowning. His father laughed, “careful, or your face will get stuck like that.”

Shintaro remembered telling Aomine that one time, a bit over two months before the school year had ended and he remembered how Aomine had simply rolled his eyes at that and oh.

“You heard your mother; go freshen up and we'll eat in a few minutes,” his father said and the look he gave him before rolling out of the room told Shintaro that his father was well aware that he had just made a discovery.

He liked Aomine. Or had liked? No, the way his stomach clenched at that told him that his feelings (feelings? Just the word was making him want to puke) were still there and how had he never considered this before? Shintaro considered himself a smart individual in all occasions, especially when it came to himself – he wasn't one to run away from what he was thinking or feeling, simply putting it away to take them out at a more opportune time –, but he'd never considered this possibility.

Well, the possibility of being attracted to a boy, being it romantically or sexually, had crossed his mind over the years and he'd long made peace with it. Actually, there hadn't been any peace to make with because it had never bothered him – one day when he was thirteen he'd simply wondered about what it'd be like to date a boy, had decided he didn't dislike the thought and that had been it. He knew his family wouldn't be bothered and any friend that was, clearly wasn't a friend worth having. Not that he'd come out to many people (he'd only come out to Akashi, and that had been in the middle of a shogi game, wanting to shock the other boy into losing, which hadn't happened – neither the shocking nor the losing, that is), after all he didn't really see how he had to. It wasn't his fault everyone lived in a world where they expected everyone to be straight.

Shintaro went to the bathroom, where he washed his face and then stared at the mirror for some seconds.

He had a crush on Aomine. How had this happened? Physically he could understand; Aomine didn't just have a nice body to look at, he was cute. Okay, maybe that wasn't the right word, he was hot? That made him blush. Beautiful? That made him blush harder but he couldn't exactly disagree. Okay, so the physical part of the crush was easy to understand but the emotional? They'd spent three years as team mates and even on the same class and Shintaro couldn't remember them having a single conversation that lasted for longer than five minutes. Except... he remembered the Summer in second year, when they'd gone away for the weekend for a training camp and how he hadn't been able to sleep and had found Aomine at two am in the morning looking at the stars. He'd joined him, sitting on the grass, and after some minutes in silence had started telling the other boy the constellations' names. Sometimes he even joined a story he knew.

He had spent the time looking up so he didn't know if Aomine had done the same or had looked at him. Once he'd told him about more than half a dozen constellations Aomine had stopped him with a laugh, complementing him on his memory (it hadn't exactly been meant as a compliment, but that was how Shintaro had taken it) and then they'd talked until the sun had risen, and Shintaro couldn't remember exactly what they'd discuss (he did remember the mention of a duck, but he couldn't remember the situation), only that they'd been yelled at by the coach the next day and that they'd never mentioned that night again.

Okay, so it was a good memory. It still wasn't enough to make him fall- No, not fall in love, that was ridiculous, this was just a crush. So, one nice conversation couldn't be enough to make him start liking the other boy in a romantic manner, right? And yes, playing the piano while Aomine listened were also good memories but again, they couldn't be enough to make him like him, right? They had never talked; all that had happened had been Shintaro playing the piano and having an audience.

An audience that he only just now realized he had been crushing on for... how long? Since the last year of school? Since before? Maybe that was why Akashi hadn't been shocked at his confession; maybe the other boy had seen his feelings for Aomine before Shintaro himself had. If that was the case, Shintaro would have appreciated him sharing that knowledge (okay, he wouldn't have accepted it immediately, but surely knowing earlier than now would have been good, no? Well, knowing himself that was probably not true, since he couldn't even try to imagine the stupid situations he would have put himself in around Aomine. Not to mention how mocked he would have been. No, not knowing before now wasn't that bad.)

He needed a plan of attack. A plan to make him forget Aomine. His stomach clenched.

“Shintaro! Dinner!” He heard his mother call and decided he'd leave his existential crisis to later. Food would help him think.

.

Food did not help him think. Mostly because his stomach was so clenched that was able to touch the food. But of course he made himself eat at least a small portion because he was an athlete and he would not allow his body to lose strength.

He noticed how his mother kept sending him looks, like she wanted to ask something, and how his father kept shaking his head at her and did he know exactly what was causing this? Did he know he had a crush? Thinking back on their conversation, that was likely, but did he know who he had a crush on? That sounded less likely, seeing as Shintaro had never talked about Aomine, at least no more than he talked about any of ex-team mates, except sometimes to complain and he couldn't remember even telling his parents about the other teen going to listen to him play.

Still, he was glad his father wasn't letting his mother ask him questions, because he honestly didn't know how he would answer. Would he close off immediately? Most likely, but there was also the small chance he'd go completely off character and start a rant about gorgeous blue eyes and end with his elbows on the table and holding his head and he needed to relax. He was starting to make himself nervous, and he didn't like that. That was why he followed a schedule everyday and why he always had the lucky item of the day, so that he could feel in control. Yes, things could still end wrong, but he would do everything in his power to make sure they didn't.

The minute the dinner ended, he picked up his plate, put it on the balcony and quickly exited the room.

He needed to think. He needed to find a quiet place and just relax. He needed... he needed the piano. He went back downstairs, having climbed the stairs thinking the best place to relax would be his room but it'd be silent and he didn't want that. Neither did he want to simply put music playing.

He didn't take out a sheet music, instead simply started playing songs that he could remember. Songs that he'd played over and over at Teiko's music classroom and slowly his breathing slowed down until all he could feel was the pieces beneath his fingers and finally, after some minutes, he picked up a sheet music Sachiko had given him two days before.

“Let Her Go” is exactly the type of music he needed right now. His fingers moved effortlessly and if he knew the lyrics, he thought he might actually have tried joining in. He wasn't sure how that would go, since he hadn't sang while playing in... it had been years; the last time had been when Sachiko had fallen in love with a song and had begged him over and over to learn to play it and he'd only been playing the piano for some months so he'd spent days and days not just training, but listening to the lyrics and eventually singing along had simply come as second nature.

His parents had told him he had a good voice but he'd never tried it again. He liked to simply play it and leave Sachiko with the singing part. But maybe he'd give this song a chance, even though it was in English and he had a terrible accent.

Shintaro played the song two more times and then played one time each song he'd learnt that week.

By the time he was done his fingers were hurting a little bit and while he felt bad about it; he had to be careful with them, he couldn't completely regret it, not when he had finally become calm.

While walking to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, Shintaro remembered that he'd be seeing Aomine in a bit more than a week and his stomach clenched, but this time he could control it. He had a whole week to decide exactly what he was going to do. It was going to be fine.

.

The days passed and the only thing Shintaro was certain by the time Saturday came was that he had been much happier when he hadn't been aware of this crush. Just the word made him want to vomit. At least he was more or less able to keep a calm exterior (okay, so he might be lying to himself, because he'd noticed the looks he'd been receiving the whole week and Takao had told him twice that this was just a practise game and he should probably feel grateful that they thought he was nervous because of the game).

No one talked during the bus ride to which Shintaro was thankful because he didn't want to make small talk. He kept squeezing his lucky item of the day – a teddy bear he was keeping inside his backpack (his sister had a bigger one but then he'd have to bring it on his arms and if this was an official game he might have done it, screw people staring at him but as it was he'd decided on a smaller one).

Since it was Saturday, Toou was mostly deserted (mostly because Shintaro could see the baseball team and the athleticism one practising and they looked at them while they passed, but didn't say anything). It wasn't hard to find the gym and inside the first person he noticed was Momoi. Of course he'd known she too was in Toou, but he hadn't really wasted any time thinking about it (which was stupid, because she wouldn't go easy on them just because this was a friendly match).

“Midorin!” She exclaimed and came to hug him. Shintaro hugged back, feeling a bit uncomfortable since he wasn't used to physical contact, but he didn't truly mind. He'd always liked Momoi and they'd always gotten along; he might even go as far as consider them friends.

“Momoi-san, how are you?” He asked once she'd dropped her arms and had taken a step back.

“I'm doing well, thank you, and you?”

“I'm fine as well, thank you. School is a bit more demanding,” he wasn't very good at small talk but for Momoi he'd try. He wouldn't mind rekindling their friendship; he'd always respected her and the more he thought about it the more he realized he'd missed her.

“Yes, it is, but it's more exciting as well, isn't it?” Without waiting for an answer she continued, “how are you finding your new team?”

“They're... interesting,” he said and realized he meant it. They were nothing like Teiko's team but that didn't mean that they weren't good players. They were all growing on him. He almost told her of the three wishes rule, knowing it would make her laugh but while he didn't see a problem in telling his friend that, he did see a problem in telling Toou's manager that (manager and much more, he was sure). Actually, thinking about her being manager he wondered if she had been the one to request this practise game and if so, then why his team? Had she asked other teams?

“Toou is as well,” she approached him, like she was going to tell him a secret, “Imayoshi-senpai is a very different captain than Aka-san.”

“Everyone's different from Akashi,” he said, not in a whisper, but not in a regular speaking voice either. That made Momoi giggle and he smiled at her reaction. She'd always been easy to get along with.

“Midorima, come on, let's get equipped!” Otsubo called and with a nod to Momoi he went after him. He glanced around while walking and didn't see Aomine. He recognized some faces from games during the Teiko time, but couldn't remember anyone with much details.

The coach gave them a small speech before they went back to the court, basically reminded them all of what he'd been telling them all week and Otsubo simply said, “let's show them what we've got” before they left the locker room.

Aomine still wasn't on the court. For the first time Shintaro wondered if he hadn't joined the basketball team but he wouldn't go against Akashi. Akashi wanted everyone on a basketball team, so everyone had joined one. Maybe he was sick? Could be but somehow he didn't think that was what had happened. Maybe Shintaro's fear of Aomine having gotten even more bored with basketball had come true.

Well, he couldn't focus on that. For now he had a game to play; then he'd ask Momoi about Aomine.

The game started with all players giving their all. It was interesting to find Toou had a three-pointer shooter but that wasn't going to be enough to save them.

By half time they were winning by almost twenty points and if Aomine didn't come on court, then there was no question whether they were going to win or not.

All members of Shutoku were excited, but none like Takao, who kept jumping up and down and really, he was like a child and an embarrassment to them all.

“This is our first game as a team, Shin-chan, you should me more excited!” Shintaro simply rolled his eyes at that.

“It's not even a real one,” Miyaji said and Shintaro rolled his eyes again because Miyaji was always doing this; trying to push Takao to the next level.

Takao, of course, started rambling about how every game was important, especially to build team spirit and only stopped when their coach shushed him.

“We may be winning, but-” Coach Nakatani was interrupted by the gym door opening.

Aomine walked in like he has always did – like he was the king gracing his subjects with his presence and Shintaro had forgotten how much he hated that smug entrance.

“Dai-chan! Where have you been? The game started almost thirty minutes ago!” Momoi quickly went to him and because everyone had stopped talking, everyone could hear their conversation.

“Fell asleep,” Aomine said and didn't try to cover his yawn at that. Momoi argued that she'd personally set his alarm clock but was stopped by Imayoshi.

“Get dressed and start warming up,” he said and didn't wait for an answer before going back to his team.

Aomine walked slowly to the locker room, passing through Shutoku and locking eyes with Shintaro for some seconds. Neither said anything and suddenly Coach was bringing him back to reality.

“Well, now that their ace is participating in the game, things are going to be tougher. Still, continue to play as you have. Don't let him get his hands on the ball. Midorima, change markers with Kimura; he'll be on number nine now and you'll be on Aomine.”

The two of them nodded and afterwards walked back to the court. The game re-started without Aomine joining them and knowing that the game would be difficult once he was in, Shintaro did everything he could to make sure they had the biggest point difference.

In five minutes he scored over six times, all from the three-points line and he could see the other team starting to get nervous. Well, their captain hide it well but Shintaro could see it.

Finally with two minutes for the third part to be over, Aomine joined them.

The ball was Toou's and number nine passed to Aomine, without Kimura being able to intercept it.

Shintaro had never played one-on-one with Aomine, and could barely remember the last time he'd marked him during practise (especially seeing as Aomine had missed more practises than attended), so while he knew the other was fast, very fast, he still wasn't prepared to deal with him.

Aomine passed through him without a problem and Shintaro squinted at him. Yes, Aomine had been fast but he wasn't playing with everything he had. Hell, he was barely playing with any energy. Shintaro wasn't going to allow that to continue. He might not be able to be his equal, but he was more than a puppet to be pushed aside.

The third part ended with Shutoku having eighty-four points and Toou seventy-five (Aomine had scored more than five times in less than forty seconds).

Their coach told them to put a two-on-one defence on Aomine but Shintaro objected.

“I can take him on,” he said and moved a few steps to the right when he saw Miyaji looking at him with that look that promised retribution.

“He's only used two of his wishes for the day,” Takao said and so the coach nodded.

“Ok, but if I see it's not working, Otsubo will be joining you in defence.” Shintaro nodded at that and they went back to the court.

“I was expecting more of you, Midorima,” Aomine said and Shintaro glared at him but didn't say anything. He was the one holding the ball and he wasn't going to let his words get to him. He was on their side of the court, a couple of feet away from the mid-court line but he couldn't see anyone free from a pass and he knew that Aomine would take the ball of his hands so while he knew coach was going to be angry, he took a step back and shot the ball. Aomine jumped but it was too late and the ball went in, just as he knew it would have.

He could see the other team surprised at how far he was able to shoot and even his team was surprised, since in most practises he didn't dare to shoot from this far back but he couldn't help but to kind of want to show off. Aomine was the only one on the court, perhaps the whole gym, not surprised, and simply just smirked at him.

“Guess we've all grown, ahm?” And he was quickly running away, catching a pass from Imayoshi and Shintaro followed him but it wasn't enough to stop him from making a dunk. “Some more than others,” Aomine told him as he passed through and Shintaro wanted to hit him.

Aomine dunked and the game continued on.

Both of them continued to make shots and he wasn't able to steal Aomine's ball more than twice but but in the end they won because Aomine's shots were worth two points while his were worth three (and he could hear himself in his mind promising Kuroko he would one day show him his shots were the better ones to make).

They bowed to each other, with Aomine being in front of him and he was still smirking, but he didn't look that smug and Shintaro's heart was racing.

Before he went to the locker room Momoi stopped him with a smile.

“Congratulations. You know, I didn't expect you to already be able to shoot from that far. I wonder if you can already shot from the other side of the court?” The smile she ended her question with told him she didn't expect an answer. She continued, “you've grown, Midorin; I could see you rely on your team mates.”

“Aomine would call that weakness,” he said, moving on from whether he was or not capable of shooting from the other side of the court (not yet, but sooner or later he would master that).

“Dai-chan also keeps saying, “the only one who can beat me is me,”” she imitated his tone, but really didn't get it. “And he's wrong.”

“About the weakness part or the one where he thinks no one can beat him?”

“Both,” she said and with that gave him another hug, this time a quicker one and then went to talk to Toou's coach.

His team had already gone to the locker room so he went to follow them but stopped when he heard footsteps behind.

He turned and Aomine was walking towards him, with both hands on his pockets.

Shintaro raised an eyebrow at him, curious about what Aomine had to say and also not completely trusting his voice not to shake and really, when had he turned into a thirteen year old girl?

“Toou has a music room,” was what came out of Aomine's mouth and Shintaro couldn't help but to blink several times at that because well, that had really not been what he'd been expecting.

“That's nice” was what he was about to say but Aomine was looking at the floor and he wouldn't say that just because, would he? Maybe he missed their little... meetings? just as much as Shintaro did.

“Shutoku has one too, but its piano is really old.”

Aomine finally looked him in the eyes, and he wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. He started walking away and Shintaro was left frowning. Was that all?

After four steps Aomine turned around, “aren't you coming?”

Shintaro wanted to tell him he wasn't a dog to be called but he was pretty sure that would make things worse, so he simply caught up in a few long strikes.

Shintaro sent a text to Takao, telling him he'd meet them at the bus station and they walked silently.

The music room was on the first floor and it was opened. Shintaro's eyes immediately moved to the piano in the corner, which didn't look to be more than a couple of years old and which was clearly well taken care of.

He didn't wait for Aomine to say anything (and anyway, that probably wouldn't happen), simply put his backpack on the floor and went to sit. He didn't play Mozart or Bach or anything he used to play in Teiko. Instead he started with “Francis” and kept on playing the things his sister had been giving him.

After almost twenty minutes he finally decided to stop, even though he wouldn't have minded to keep playing and playing.

He got up and turned around and for a second was expecting to find Aomine sitting against the door with his eyes closed, like he had always done in Teiko, but instead he was leaning against the door frowning.

“What?” Shintaro asked, immediately on the defensive. He hadn't been training the songs for long, but he was pretty sure they sounded good.

“What were you playing?”

“Some pop songs Sachiko printed for me.”

Aomine just frowned harder, “no Batz or whatever that dude was called?”

“Bach,” Shintaro answered while rolling his eyes, “I decided to play something else. You don't like it?” He hoped he had been able to ask that with a normal appearance, because his heart had started to beat a little faster. He wasn't sure exactly what he would do if Aomine said he didn't like it, but he wouldn't enjoy hearing it.

Aomine shrugged, “it was different.”

Shintaro wanted to ask, “good different or bad different?” and after a few seconds wondering why exactly he shouldn't do it, he finally voiced the question.

“Just different,” Aomine answered and Shintaro almost sighed at that because really, what had he been expecting?

He walked towards the other teen and picked up both of their backpacks, quickly passing Aomine's to him.

“Thanks,” the other said and they left the room in silence.

Shintaro wasn't sure if he wanted to start a conversation or not so he decided to leave it to Aomine to start talking.

“Where are you heading?” Aomine asked once they had left the school grounds and he had stopped in front of the gates.

“The bus station. It's just a couple of blocks from here,” he answered but didn't immediately walk away. Aomine didn't say anything so finally he pushed his glasses up his nose and muttered, “see you around,” and turned around.

He hadn't given more than three steps before he was being accompanied on his walk.

“I'll go with you,” Aomine said and when Shintaro looked at him sideways the other teen was looking forward, with both hands on his shorts' pockets.

It didn't take more than a minute for Shintaro's hands to start sweating and he was pretty sure that five seconds hadn't gone by without him pushing his glasses. This felt like that moment on romantic films when you just knew something was about to happen, except he hadn't been given a script for this moment and there was no director telling him what to do and he couldn't remember the last time he had been this nervous.

Shintaro didn't like this feeling. On their third year of Teiko he had pretty much lost all nervousness before games; after all why be preocuppied when the chances of you losing a game were less than 1%? And besides that there had never been many reasons for him to be nervous. It wasn't something he was used to feeling and he would appreciate if the feeling simply went away.

“What'd ya think of the game?” It took Shintaro a couple of seconds to decipher the noises that had come out of Aomine's mouth.

He looked sideways at him, but Aomine was still looking forward, and Shintaro wondered if he'd imagined the words. But after a few more seconds Aomine was finally turning his head to look at him with a raised eyebrow, so he probably hadn't dreamt the question.

“It was good. It was Shutoku's first practise game.”

“Yeah, it was Toou's too.”

“Did you really fall asleep?” Shintaro asked before Aomine could decide where to take the conversation and the question made the other teen bark a laugh, but it didn't sound happy. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard Aomine laughing happily.

“Nah, just wanted to give you a head start,” he pushed his shoulder into Shintaro's, whose reaction was to push his glasses up his nose once again.

He wanted to say “we didn't need one” but Shintaro wasn't fond of lies, and he was pretty sure that if Aomine had played from the beginning they wouldn't have won; at least if he'd played like he meant it, which hadn't always happened the year before. Then again, besides him and Kuroko none of the others had played at their maximum; not even Akashi.

“Last year you wouldn't have shot from that far in a game, even in a friendly game,” Aomine said after some more seconds in silence.

Shintaro pushed his glasses up his nose, not sure what to say to that. He turned to him and found Aomine looking sideways at him. For just a second their eyes locked but it didn't last for long; in no time was Aomine looking away with a scoff.

They were just a couple of streets away from the bus stop. Once again Shintaro felt like he was at an important time. He could almost feel two roads ahead, the one where this became a distant memory and the one where one of them said something and they met again. Shintaro wondered if Aomine felt the same, if he was even interested in meeting up again.

Shintaro didn't consider himself a coward, but he didn't think himself overly brave either. If the situation called for some bravery, he usually showed it, but he was fond of just letting things run their course as well. Then again, you let things run their course too much and when you wanted to get back on them, the moment might already have passed.

One street to go. He stopped. Aomine continued on for some steps until he finally realized he was walking alone and turned around with a raised eyebrow.

“Why didn't you show up at the beginning of the game?” That hadn't been what he'd been planning on asking. At all. What kind of question was that!? He was supposed to maybe ask him for a meal (okay, Shintaro knew himself well enough to know he would have never been able to do that unless he had been under the influence of something), not why the other hadn't been in the game from the start!

“Why do you care? We're not friends,” was the answer he received and admittedly it wasn't what he'd been expecting.

If this had happened last year Shintaro would have probably just walked away. But as it was, he felt he had grown a little bit with the distance between him and his old team mates.

He didn't answer right away, wanting to choose his words.

“You don't play basketball like you used to,” was what he started with and that hadn't been exactly where he'd been going with that, but at least it was a start, right?

“Neither do you,” Aomine retorted and he was starting to grow angry, Shintaro could see.

“No, I play better now. You just play like you don't care.”

“Maybe I don't,” was the answer he got and Aomine walked towards him, only stopping a foot away. Shintaro could almost feel the heat radiating from him.

“If that was true, then you wouldn't have shown up for the game at all.”

“Maybe I thought you would actually prove to be a worthy opponent.”

Shintaro squinted at that but didn't answer. It was true that they had won, but it hadn't been by him going against Aomine one-on-one.

Aomine wanted him angry and he couldn't understand why. Did he want Shintaro to scream at him? To hit him? Or did he just not want to be alone in his anger?

“You're right, I can't be your rival. Not the way you need one.”

“I don't need-” Aomine started but Shintaro just kept on talking.

“You do; and they're out there somewhere.”

Aomine scoffed. “I doubt it. The only one who can beat me is me.”

Shintaro raised an eyebrow at that. It wasn't the first time he was hearing that, but it didn't seize to amaze him, “you're fifteen years old. Do you really think there's no one better than you out there?”

“Not on this level.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, “you're going to swallow those words sooner or later.”

“And let me guess, you'll be there to tell me 'I told you so'?” Aomine asked, getting a bit closer and there was barely any breathing space left between them and at home Shintaro would probably blush at this memory but right now he didn't care about that.

“No, I'll be there to actually see you care about something. Basketball isn't everything, Aomine.”

Aomine frowned at that. He didn't seem to know what to say to that. Finally, he gave a small laugh, more bitter than anything, and took two steps back. Immediately Shintaro missed the warmth.

“I'll be seeing you around, Midorima,” and with a wave he turned away, going back to the path they'd just taken. Shintaro couldn't stop himself from turning around and watch him go and he wondered if this had been a scene in a movie, if it would have been an important part of it, for both of them or just one, or a scene that wouldn't even have made the final cut.

He shook his head and started walking again. He guessed he would find out sooner or later.


	2. Part II

Life continued on.

April passed, as did May and the only people Shintaro still talked to from his old life were Kise and Momoi. He had received an invitation to have dinner at Kise's house on the Saturday after his birthday and had accepted, not seeing a reason not to.

Entering the other's living room he found himself being right at his assumption that the only people he was going to find from Teiko would be Kuroko, Momoi and Aomine. Of course, Murasakibara and Akashi were studying too far away, but even if that weren't the case he was almost 100% sure that Akashi still wouldn't have made an appearance. The other teen had changed and celebrating birthdays with friends didn't seem to matter anymore. Then again, neither did friends.

Shintaro's presents had always to do with one's sign but the truth was lucky items for the year didn't change that much and he had already given Kise two alarm clocks so this year he had been convinced by Takao to change this. Takao had been way too interested in helping because apparently he was curious about what the Generation of Miracles were like as “normal teenagers.”

Shintaro had simply rolled his eyes because of course they were normal teenagers; they were simply more skilled than most (he did not say that when anyone from Shutoku but Takao was there to listen – he'd learnt his lesson and getting hit by a pineapple really wasn't something he wanted to repeat).

In the end he couldn't buy something completely unrelated to one's sign so he had bought a blue sweatshirt (one of Gemini's lucky colours) with an alarm clock painted on it, stopped at four (Gemini's lucky number even though Kise had always claimed it was eight, his number on the team – Shintaro wondered if he now chose seven as his lucky number).

“Midorimachi!” Kise jumped up from where he had been sitting on the sofa, apparently conversing with Momoi, and hugged him. It wasn't long so Shintaro didn't even have time to hug back.

“Happy birthday,” Shintaro said once he had been let go and gave him the package he'd brought with.

“Is it an alarm clock? Because the other two are still working,” Kise said with a smile but it was obviously a joke – after all, the package clearly contained something soft. “Is it a blanket?”

“Just open it,” Shintaro said and Kise did it, ripping it open just like Sachiko always did.

“Oh, a shirt! Thank you, Midorimachi. Oh, and it's blue, just like Kaijo's uniform.”

Shintaro was going to tell him that hadn't been the reason he'd chosen the colour blue, but decided not to. Let Kise believe what he would.

“Four still isn't my lucky number, Midorimachi,” Kise said, after he'd been looking at the shirt for some seconds. Shintaro had known that the other boy would understand the meaning of the number. “It's seven now.”

“Wasn't that Midorima's number in Teiko?” Aomine's strong voice came from the kitchen. He entered the room holding a glass of some purple juice, perhaps made of grape.

Shintaro hadn't seen Aomine since the practise match and he couldn't help when his heart started to race just a bit faster. He had started to believe distance would make him forget the other teen, but apparently two months weren't enough.

“But it's not now! What's your number, Midorimachi?”

“Six,” he answered, at the same time Momoi did. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, to which she just shrugged with a smile.

“And what's the others'?” Kise asked, this time at Momoi, who immediately started reciting.

“Dai-chan is number five, Tetsu-kun is eleven, Mukkun is nine and Akashi-san is four.”

Kise nodded at that with a smile and then changed the subject of conversation to classes; telling Shintaro that it had been extremely unfair of him not to lend him his lucky pencil.

“I almost failed Midorimachi, and then I wouldn't have been able to play!”

“That had nothing to do with me; you should focus more on your studies and less on the basketball club.”

The entire room, including Kuroko, snorted at that. Shintaro pushed his glasses up his nose but didn't say anything. At least he had done well on all of his tests.

After that there were some seconds of uncomfortable silence, with everyone trying to find a safe topic to follow. Basketball was off limits; Shintaro had no idea the reactions an innocent joke might receive and apparently no one wanted to talk about school either.

“How's modelling going?” Momoi finally asked Kise and if this was an anime, a sigh would have been heard all around.

“It's going very well! I have several fashion shows scheduled for Summer; one is in Paris! Kasamatsu-senpai wasn't very happy when I told him I would miss two days of the training camp.”

“Imayoshi-senpai still hasn't decided where we should go, but I think the mountains might be for the best,” Momoi said.

“I vote the beach,” Aomine said and received a glare from Momoi, while Shintaro and Kuroko simply rolled his eyes at him. Kise just giggled, an annoying habit that he still hadn't lost. “What?”

“Summer training camps are, as the name say, to train, not to sleep on the beach. Besides, you don't want to have to go to the hospital because of a sunburnt again, do you Dai-chan?”

That made Kise change his giggle to an actual laugh and Shintaro would have probably accompanied him if Momoi's question hadn't made a blush appear on Aomine's face, something one didn't see everyday. Shintaro tried not to look too closely, mostly because he was in a room with Momoi and Kuroko, who were almost as attentive as Akashi. He did not need them to know about his crush; Kuroko would probably simply not care and Shintaro was pretty sure he wouldn't tell anyone about it but Momoi might want to... talk about it. Maybe give him advice. Shintaro shivered just thinking about it.

Aomine then started arguing how that had only happened once and then Momoi and Kise started a discussion on the pros and cons of a training camp on the beach versus one on the mountains.

Shintaro only talked about the beach one, because Shutoku had a tradition of always going to the same place, and it didn't seem likely that would change this year, not when Miyaji was already making plans for it – which mostly consisted of practising horrible one-liners on girls on the beach. Takao had managed to make Kimura tell them of the disastrous consequences that had brought the year before.

“I'm hungry,” Aomine said after they had been chatting on this topic for a bit more than ten minutes.

“Aomine-kun is always hungry,” Kuroko said, which made Momoi giggle.

“It's not my fault I'm a big boy,” Aomine said with a smirk.

“I'm taller than you and I don't eat as much,” Shintaro said because Aomine had always enjoyed bossing over him how he was taller (even if for barely a centimetre) and Shintaro couldn't lie and say he hadn't enjoyed seeing how he was now the taller of the two during their practise match.

Judging by Aomine's face, he didn't enjoy this new difference like Shintaro did.

“But I have more muscle, so it makes sense I eat more,” Aomine said after thinking for some seconds, crossing his arms and smirking after he'd told him that, just like a child would do. It was nice to see that some things never changed.

“How much do you weight, Aominechi?”

“Eighty-five kilos.”

“And you Midorimachi?”

“Eighty.”

“You weight more than I do!” Shintaro wasn't sure that was supposed to sound like a good or a bad thing and neither did Kise, seeing as his face kept changing between a smile and a pout.

“I weight fifty-eight,” Kuroko said and the boys on the room couldn't help but to blink at him. Kuroko had always been the smallest and lighter of them all but a difference of more than twenty kilos was a bit preposterous.

By Momoi's look it was possible he weighted even more than she did but no one was stupid enough to ask her if that was the case or not. Well, Aomine probably was but apparently he had decided not to start an argument with her.

“I'm going to get the pizzas,” Kise finally said and got up. “Somebody come help me!” He called from inside and Shintaro, Kuroko and Momoi all got up. Aomine simply got more comfortable where he was sitting against the sofa.

In less than five minutes they were all back on the living room, with two large pizzas (there were three more on the kitchen) on the tables, surrounded by sodas and glasses and everyone had their own plates with several pieces.

For the first ten minutes no one barely said anything aside from a “you chose well, Kise-kun” from Kuroko, which made the birthday boy brighten up – Kise had always cared what Akashi said, but not like he cared about what Kuroko said. Shintaro was pretty sure it was because of that that Kise hadn't blown off every single practise in middle school.

Once all pizzas were gone (with Aomine holding onto his stomach but still claiming that eating almost two of them alone hadn't been a mistake) they simply continued to chat about everyday things, this time in a more relaxing atmosphere.

Momoi told them about Sakurai, the first-year old who could shoot three-pointers but that kept apologizing for every single thing, even when he had absolutely no blame. Kise told them about his team mate who usually went to a girl before games and told her he would be shooting for her and then started chatting with Kuroko about his team mates, whom he had met during a practise match.

“Can't believe you lost, Kise,” Aomine said, laying down on the floor.

“Kagamichi is a really powerful player! Maybe powerful enough for you, Aominechi,” Kise told him but Aomine barely seemed to care, snorting and muttering his beloved phrase - “the only one who can beat me is me” - under his breath.

“Not yet; but he will be,” Kuroko said and that got a reaction from Aomine, getting him to start to sit up. However, no sooner was he doing that, was he back on the floor with another snort, but this time without repeating what he had already said. Maybe he had a quota of how often he could say that, like Midorima with his three wishes?

“My team only approves me of asking for three wishful wishes per day,” he said, not wanting the other two to start a discussion. Well, the discussion wouldn't have been between them, more like Kuroko would make another commentary, to which Aomine might answer a bit less respectfully, which would then make Momoi start yelling at him and really, no one wanted to see a distressed Momoi.

That made Aomine snort (did that hurt his nose?) while Momoi and Kise giggled. Kuroko just looked at him with those impassive eyes.

“How's that working out so far?”

“The only time I asked for more, I was hit by a pineapple,” Shintaro said in a no-nonsense voice and Kise and Momoi started laughing harder.

After that things returned to their relaxing path. When the breaks between conversation started lasting a bit more Kise got up from the sofa he was sharing with Momoi and Kuroko and skipped (really, he skipped) to Shintaro, stopping in front of the armchair he was sitting going back and forth on his toes.

“What do you want?”

“Well, since it's my birthday... could you play some piano? Aominechi says you no longer play only boring things.”

That made Shintaro glare at Aomine. He did not play boring things; he played classical music and many people would give a kidney to be able to play as well as he did. Of course the glare didn't last long before the implications of what Kise had just said entered his mind. Had Aomine simply made a one-time comment or did he talk about his piano playing often? If so, exactly what did he say?

Aomine was still laying down with his eyes closed so no answer was coming from there and Shintaro had absolutely no desire to ask Kise any of that.

“So, will you? Pretty please?” Kise was obviously trying to copy Kuroko's puppy eyes, and failing spectacularly, but Shintaro still got up and started walking to the electronic piano besides the door that led to the kitchen. It was Kise's mother who played, he'd been told years ago, the first time he had visited Kise's home.

He sat down because it was Kise's birthday and he wasn't a complete bastard to deny him this little gift. Well, it was possible he was doing it with second intentions as well, since Aomine seemed to like to hear him play and there was nothing wrong in wanting to keep the other one interested, right? Shintaro had always heard the way to a man's heart was through food, but why not through music as well?

Shintaro started playing “Titanium”, being the song he could remember the best, since it was one of the few that he played pretty much everyday, because it was Sachiko's favourite and her singing had really improved. She was now capable of singing “Diamonds” and “E.T.” as well – songs that Shintaro hadn't even bothered to hear more than the first few verses by their original singers.

He then played “Rolling in the Deep” and simply kept playing other songs for almost twenty minutes. He ended with “A Thousand Years” – it was a bit of a sad melody but Shintaro had only started playing it the week before and he had grown fond of it. It was one of the few songs that he had put the original version on his music player.

When he finished he didn't immediately hear anything, so he turned around. He might not have been expecting a grand applause, but it wouldn't hurt them to clap just a bit, would it?

He found the people in the room all with their eyes closed, even Kuroko. Momoi was the first one to open her eyes, and he noticed how they were glinting. Had his playing made her cry?

She wiped them and said, “that was beautiful, Midorin.”

“Yeah, it was,” Kise was the second one to look at him, and while his eyes weren't glinting, his voice shook a bit.

“You have improved immensely, Midorima-kun,” Kuroko said and Shintaro was pretty sure this was the first time he was receiving a compliment from Kuroko that didn't immediately afterwards insult him.

Shintaro couldn't help but to look at Aomine, who was still laying down but finally decided to sit up. He didn't say anything, just stared at Shintaro in the eyes and for the first time in a long time Shintaro wished he could hear other people's thoughts (he had wished for that many times over the last year, watching Akashi change so much). After some seconds of silence he finally forced himself to look away.

The room was silent for some seconds and realizing that it was probably his fault (he should have ended his little recital with a happier song), he turned around and played happy birthday on the piano.

He heard Momoi and Kise laughing over the sound of the keyboard, which made him smile in return. In the third year of middle school it hadn't been often that they had gotten together to simply hang out and he realized that he had missed this. Who said his new life couldn't include a bit of the old one?

“Let me go and get the cake!” Kise said after he'd stopped playing and quickly got up and skipped to the kitchen (for just one second Shintaro imagined him doing the same doing practise; from what he'd heard during the evening, he would probably get kicked by Kaijo's captain).

Kise came back out with a pretty big cake in the form of... yes, a basketball. Not that this was a surprise; Kise did it every year. It wasn't just shaped like one, but it was coloured like one as well. It had sixteen candles on it and Momoi grabbed a camera to start taking pictures.

Kise was smiling and after putting the cake on the table went around the room grabbing onto them and making stupid faces at the camera. Aomine was the only one who agreed to make a stupid face with him, while Kuroko just remained impassive as always and Shintaro was probably touching his glasses in the photos more often than he wasn't. Momoi took a group picture of them, but it didn't feel right; there were two members missing. Still, no one let that bring them down and Shintaro was handed the camera to take some pictures so that Momoi could be into some.

He wasn't a very good photographer; usually it was his mother or sister who had their hands on one, and usually he was the one trying not to get caught so he was pretty sure half of the photos he took would go to the trash. He handed back the camera when they started singing “happy birthday” to Momoi.

Kise was generous in his slices, especially in the one to Aomine, but that was probably because Momoi hadn't had a slice in less than two seconds and half of it had already been eaten by the other teen.

They ate in silence apart from Aomine's “this is delicious” which was said with food on his mouth, which meant that they all stared at the other teen for some seconds, trying to decipher what he had just said until he finally swallowed and repeated the sentence, this time understandable, and immediately went back at attacking his slice.

It was nine pm when they finally got ready to leave. It had been decided that Shintaro, Kuroko, Aomine and Momoi would all catch the same bus to get home.

Shintaro wasn't one hundred percent sure how it happened but they hadn't been walking for more than two minutes before Momoi and Kuroko were several steps in front of them, with Momoi holding onto Kuroko's arm and he was left walking with Aomine at a more calm pass – it was actually an interesting question, seeing as him and Aomine had bigger legs, so Momoi and Kuroko must be walking extremely fast. Or were he and Aomine simply walking too slowly?

“You've given up on Mozart?” Aomine asked and Shintaro almost jumped at hearing him talk. He had been expecting the whole walk to be taken in silence.

He looked at him, but Aomine was looking ahead with his hands on his pockets, just like he had several months ago when they had discussed Shintaro's new musical taste – at least for playing. He wondered if it was going to end with one of them walking away again; hopefully not, Momoi wouldn't like that.

“I'm just trying new things,” Shintaro answered in a low tone, not really sure where the other teen wanted to take this. Was he simply making conversation?

“What? You don't like things that remind you of the old days?” Now Shintaro was frowning and looking at Aomine, which might make him go against a post. Aomine still wasn't looking at him, but he was tense, tenser than he had been the whole afternoon.

“What do you mean?” Shintaro was pretty sure he understood him; he had played classical in Teiko and was now obviously not playing that, but he still didn't understand how that had anything to do with not wanting to remember the old days. Well, it was true that he had started playing what Sachiko gave him because the old things only reminded him of Aomine, but it didn't mean he wanted to forget anything.

Aomine finally glanced at him, but quickly looked away. He sighed, “never mind.”

“No,” Shintaro said, and grabbed onto Aomine's arm, forcing him to stop. They were standing looking at each other and this was new, him being the one looking down on the other. He didn't like it. “Tell me what you mean.”

“It's obvious, isn't it? Everything's changing.”

Shintaro wanted to nod, because it was true but it didn't seem like that was what Aomine wanted. “We're in different schools now,” was what he started with.

“Yes, and have different friends and teams,” Aomine looked away at this. No, not away, he was looking at something. Someone. Kuroko and ah, was this what it was about?

“You don't like that he has a new light?” Shintaro was proud that his voice didn't shake. Kuroko and Aomine had always had a special friendship; maybe it went beyond that? Shintaro didn't like that thought and disliked it even more that he didn't like it. He'd never thought of himself as a jealous person, but he couldn't stop himself from being one now.

Aomine snorted, and went back at looking at Shintaro. “I doubt Magami, or whatever his name is, is that good.”

“His name's Kagami and you know it,” Shintaro retorted and Aomine snorted again, not denying it. “You didn't care that you were abandoning Kuroko last year,” he continued and Aomine squinted at him. He was growing angrier but well, it was the truth, wasn't it? “Is this like when a child doesn't want a toy until they see someone else playing with it?”

Aomine pushed him and Shintaro couldn't tell himself that it wasn't deserved.

“I'm not a child and Tetsu isn't a toy.”

“No, he's not. But you didn't seem to care last year; you knew you were hurting him but you still didn't stop.”

“So what? You want me to go and apologize?” Aomine kept pushing him until Shintaro was leaning against a wall. The street was mostly deserted, but the people who passed through them still gave them looks. “Let me guess, do you want me to say sorry to you?”

Shintaro frowned at that.

“You were the vice-captain, right? Akashi stopped caring that we didn't show up for practises but that wasn't you, right? You were always there. Why? Why couldn't you just stop caring!?”

Aomine didn't shout the last part, instead just murmuring it in an extremely angry tone and Shintaro frowned harder at that. Stop caring about what? About school? About their team? About... oh, about basketball?

“Why did you?” He questioned back, and while his tone was at a normal volume, he couldn't stop his voice from cracking.

“We won against everyone. No one was a challenge. I just... I didn't see a reason to work hard,” Aomine surprised Shintaro with his honesty, and going from the look on his face, Aomine surprised himself as well. He took a step back and ran one hand through his face. Shintaro just remained leaning against the wall. “Didn't you never get tired? Of knowing there wasn't anyone better than you? At least not outside Teiko.”

“How would I know that? We didn't play against every single player in Japan,” Shintaro knew he had just sounded like Kuroko; jad even repeated something the other teen had once told him, on one of the times where even Akashi had missed practise and it had just been the two of them. “Besides, you work hard for yourself, not for others. You became lazy. All of you. You thought you were better than everyone around you, just because you had some skills at basketball.”

Now it was Shintaro surprising them both. He had thought about this very often when at Teiko, when he was the only one still going to practises and the truth was, he had never understood the others for simply letting go. Then again, he had always wondered if he had been the captain and the others had wanted to stop practising, if he too would have allowed it just for the chance of winning. Now he truly was sounding like Kuroko.

Aomine didn't seem to know how to answer that and Shintaro almost apologized, but he wasn't one to do that unless he meant it and right now he didn't.

“I didn't stop caring because I didn't allow myself to,” Shintaro said and then continued, “when you play against Kagami, you'll see. You'll remember that you too used to love playing more than anything.”

Aomine started frowning at the mention of Kagami's name and he scoffed before saying, “what? You think he'll win against me?”

“One day,” Shintaro didn't even give himself time to think. He had thought about it watching the end of Seirin's game against Kaijo and while Kagami's skills left much to be desired right now, in a few months he would be better than he was now and he was sure that he would be able to win against Aomine.

Aomine seemed surprised at that but just scoffed again.

“If you say 'the only one who can beat me is me' I'm going to hit you,” Shintaro said when Aomine opened his mouth.

Aomine frowned and Shintaro could almost hear him say “but it's true” but instead he laughed, not a happy one, but not an angry one either, and the tension between them started vanishing.

“Come on, let's go before Satsuki comes looking for us,” Aomine said and they started walking again, this time at a pace just a bit faster.

They were walking silently but Shintaro was still thinking about the question Aomine had asked and which had started the whole argument. Was he capable of actually saying the words, “I stopped playing Mozart and everything from that time because they reminded me of you?” Probably not, but he wanted. He didn't want to be stuck on this limbo, where late at night he imagined one thousand and one different scenarios of confessing to Aomine, or being confessed to or sometimes he just skipped the confession part and started imagining what it would be like to simply be with the other teen.

His heart started racing faster just at the thought of it. He looked sideways, and found Aomine walking just as he had when they'd left Kise's house. He didn't look completely relaxed, but looking back on it, Shintaro wasn't sure he had been completely relaxed at Kise's either. Did he look relaxed in his sleep? Shintaro wanted to find out.

He sighed. He was going crazy. He couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities. It was true what they said: hope was the last thing to die and right now Shintaro had some hope, even if he tried to pretend otherwise and only accepted it when he was trying to fall asleep: hope that his feelings were reciprocated.

“Whatcha thinking about? I can hear you from here,” Aomine's voice entered his mind and Shintaro's heart wasn't going to last much longer. It was galloping and he could feel this was the time to take action.

“Just do it!” He repeated inside his mind several times, looking at Aomine's face in silence. In the end, he just sighed. He couldn't do it.

“Nothing important.”

Aomine raised an eyebrow at him, “are you saying that the great Midorima has unimportant thoughts?”

Shintaro rolled his eyes and while he was angry at himself for letting the chance pass, he decided that he simply wasn't able to do it. At least not right now.

“Not important to you. It might have been important to me.”

“What? You thinking about your crush?” Aomine asked and Shintaro almost tripped over his own feet. He kept on walking but stopped after a few feet when he realized he was walking alone. He almost took off running, knowing that his clumsiness hadn't gone unnoticed, but decided that he would simply be chased, and while he enjoyed the thought, he was pretty sure things wouldn't end like they did in his mind. He turned around.

Aomine was staring at him with both eyebrows raised. “You actually have a crush?”

“It's none of your business,” Shintaro knew that he was a terrible liar and if he'd tried simply saying “no” he would have probably started blushing and Aomine would not let go. He might not let go even now and was this is second chance? Well, if nothing else Shintaro could see what Aomine's reaction to the thought of him having a crush was.

“Does she have big boobs?” Was what came out and Shintaro almost face-palmed himself. Why was he even surprised? He turned around and started walking again.

Immediately so did Aomine, catching up to him in a few long strides.

“Okay, okay, no joking around. What is she like?”

Shintaro decided that if he wasn't able to tell Aomine about his feelings, then at least he was going to tell him he was wrong in his assumption that his crush was of the female gender.

So, he stopped and waited for Aomine to stop as well and look back at him.

“I'm gay,” that actually wasn't hard. Okay, his heart was racing extremely fast but he was pretty sure that outside he was the epitome of calm. Hopefully.

“You...?” This was probably the first time in years that Shintaro was seeing Aomine having such an honest reaction. He was obviously surprised, maybe a bit shocked, but at least there was no anger or disgust. “Uh; didn't see that coming.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, not knowing what else to do. He was probably one of the few people in the world that when coming out received such non-surprised reactions.

“So, does your crush have a big-”

Shintaro walked back to Aomine and covered his mouth with his hand. He did not want to hear the end to that question (mostly because he knew that whatever word Aomine used would haunt his dreams for a very long time).

Aomine licked his palm and Shintaro immediately let go, starting to blush.

Aomine raised an eyebrow, obviously noticing his reaction, but didn't say anything. Instead, he started walking again.

They were silent once again and since the bus stop wasn't that far away (he could already see Momoi and Kuroko), he was expecting the rest of the walk to go like that.

“I don't care,” Aomine said and this time it was Shintaro looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “That you're gay, that is.”

“I'm so glad to have your approval,” Shintaro was pretty sure that that didn't sound as ironic as it was supposed to but by now they were in hearing distance, so he simply started walking faster.

“Where have you been? We were starting to get worried!” Momoi said the minute they were just a few feet away. Kuroko didn't look all that worried.

“Nothing happened,” Aomine answered, and put an arm around Kuroko. “We just got lost looking at the scenery.”

Shintaro snorted at that but didn't say anything. Momoi was the one to fill the silence until the bus arrived and inside they sat together and once again she was the one trying to find a conversation topic, to which Shintaro usually responded, because he knew Momoi didn't like uncomfortable silences.

She and Aomine were the first ones to leave. “I hope both of you have good games,” Momoi wished them, seeing as next week the Inter-high would start and both he and Kuroko wished the same to her.

Aomine just waved.

The rest of the ride passed in silence, just as it had almost always passed when Shintaro and Kuroko had spent time alone. None of them tried to break it and soon enough Shintaro's stop was coming. He got up before the doors opened and looked down at Kuroko, who was looking up with that impassive stare that always struck a nerve.

Shintaro wanted to say something; perhaps wish him a good game or even that he was looking forward to seeing him play with his new light, but in the end he just nodded and received a nod back.

It was time to go home and start preparing for the tournament. Shintaro was not planning on losing.


	3. Part III

They lost. He lost. Shintaro couldn't remember the last time he had lost; at least at basketball. He'd always lost when playing shogi against Akashi and even at competing with him for the best grades but he couldn't remember the last time he had played an official game and lost. It was probably before middle school.

He guessed that was part of why he had cried afterwards. Not to much because he was sad (although that was a factor as well), but because he was shocked. Yes, he had seen Kagami play and he had even told Aomine that one day he might win against him and he had believed that, but he hadn't seen himself losing now; not when Kagami had clearly not reached his true potential. Had he underestimated him? No; it hadn't been Kagami he'd underestimated, it'd been Kuroko.

He put his fingers on the wrong keys of the piano and it made a horrible song. He took a deep breath and went back to playing the song from the beginning.

The minute he'd arrived home from Inter-high and everything that had happened afterwards (like talking to both Momoi and Aomine and then eating with the team that had just beaten him) he'd sat at the piano and had started playing. That must have happened at least an hour before, but no one had told him to stop yet. He had sent a text to his father after the game had ended and he was glad his parents hadn't decided to hug him and say something like, “you did everything you could” or “you'll do better next time” and- Another wrong key. Playing the piano was supposed to calm him but he just couldn't take his mind from the entire day. Could he have done something different? Of course he could have; they lost by one point! If he hadn't underestimated Kuroko- Another wrong key.

This really wasn't relaxing him. Instead, he could feel himself not just tensing up, but actually getting angry.

Shintaro wasn't used to being angry. He got upset and people sometimes got on his nerves, but he didn't get angry. Much less at himself. He didn't like this feeling at all, even less than the jealousy. But maybe it was good that he was angry. It meant that he cared about basketball and that he was going to work harder to win, but what if winning started being all that mattered? Of course Shintaro had liked to win in Teiko, but he hadn't enjoyed what that had done to his team mates. Sometimes he'd even wished that they would lose. But they hadn't and the only thing that had happened was that they'd started changing more and more, withdrawing more and more. There had been no more ice-creams after practise.

Another wrong key and finally he gave up on the current song, and changed to Christina Perri's “A Thousand Years”. It was sad, but it relaxed him.

Shintaro tried to expel all thoughts from his mind. He didn't want to think about the game and what he could and should have done to win; he didn't want to think about eating with Kise, Kuroko and Kagami (and getting a bowl of spaghetti thrown on his head because clearly he hadn't been having a bad day already) and he certainly didn't want to think about talking to Aomine and how the other had sounded so... distant.

He played another wrong note. Clearly, this song wasn't the answer either. He tried Coldplay after that and Linkin Park and Pink and a half a dozen of other musicians and when he started making more mistakes than anything else he stopped and picked a sheet from a folder he hadn't touched in months.

It had been awhile since he'd played Mozart and really, it was nothing like what he'd spent the last few months playing. He started to play a part of the 40th Symphony and he immediately realized that he had missed the sound of classical music. He let out a breath. Finally, he was able to relax and just concentrate on the music, forgetting the outside world completely.

“Shintaro,” he heard at the entrance of the living room when he finally made a pause. He turned around and his mother was leaning against the door, dressed in her pyjamas.

“What-” His voice didn't come out right and he coughed, “what time is it?”

“Eleven,” she answered and his eyebrows raised. He had been playing for over two hours.

“I'm sorry; I hadn't realized it was this late,” he immediately got up.

“It's okay, if you need to play a little longer to... well, relax. Forget about the day.”

Were they about to have a conversation about losing and what not? He had appreciated how his parents hadn't made a big deal of it and he'd appreciate even more if they simply left it at that.

“We don't have to talk about it,” his mother said, sending him a smile that said that yes, she knew him that well, “unless you want to,” she ended with a raised eyebrow.

He didn't immediately say “no, thank you”. This wasn't a stranger; it was his mom, who had always been there and whom he knew would listen to everything he had to say and make no judgements – unless he confessed to killing a man and even that it would depend on the circumstances.

Did he want to talk about the game? Not really. Did he want to talk about something else? Well... it had been months since he'd figured out about his crush and nothing had changed since then. Maybe hearing a second opinion wouldn't hurt.

“I have a crush on a boy,” he said because he wasn't fond of beating around the bush.

His mother raised an eyebrow, but he guessed she was more confused because instead of talking about the day he'd had, he'd decided to talk about the romantic feelings he was harbouring for someone. The fact that that someone was a boy probably hadn't shocked her – he might never have said the words “I'm gay” out loud but he'd been leaving clues for years.

“Is is Takao?”

“What? No!” He grimaced at that. What had led her to make that assumption?

His mother laughed, “no need to sound so disgusted.”

“It's just... no, he's a good friend,” not that he'd be telling him that anytime soon, “but... no, that... no...”

“Okay, okay, so it isn't Takao. Is it someone from your school?”

“It's Aomine,” he said before she made any more assumptions.

She raised both eyebrows at that, but didn't immediately say anything. He liked that she was thinking before talking, actually wanting to help.

“Do you want something to come out of it?” She finally asked in a soft tone and he pushed his glasses up his nose. What sort of question was that? “Some people don't mind harbouring a crush for years without it leading to anything. They're comfortable like that,” she said, like she'd read his mind.

She walked towards him and sat on the piano stool, pushing his arm to make him do the same. She didn't repeat the question, instead simply waited, looking at his face while Shintaro looked at the keyboards.

“It would be nice if there were sheets to human interaction,” was what he said after they'd spent several minutes in silence and that made his mother laugh.

“Well, I think you sound the best when you're playing from the heart.”

Shintaro frowned at that. He didn't play from the heart. He simply played what he remembered. He told her that.

“It's still different. When you're looking at the music sheet, you're only concentrating on that, but when you play from memory... you allow your mind to wander elsewhere-”

“But then I'm not paying enough attention to what I'm playing,” he interrupted.

“How is that bad? It just means you're used to the song. It's not a bad thing to be comfortable, Shintaro.”

He frowned at that but let it go. “I don't want to spend years crushing on Aomine, and wondering everyday about the future and regretting not taking a chance,” that last part he had never said even to himself.

His mother put an arm around his waist and for the first time in years he put his head on her shoulder. It was uncomfortable; he was so much taller than her but it felt good. Safe. She kissed the top of his head.

“I didn't even know I had a crush on him until some months ago. I would have preferred to have continued to live in ignorance.”

If his mother had been some years younger, she would probably have snorted, but as it was she just kissed his head again.

“But you're not anymore. What are you going to do?”

He sighed, “I don't know. I told him I was gay and he said he didn't care about that but that's different from me admitting to have a crush on him,” just the thought of doing that made him tense.

“You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with, Shintaro. Perhaps the chance will present itself.”

Shintaro didn't bother to answer that, instead he just continued to lay his head on her shoulder. His birthday was only a couple of days away and Summer was about to start, bringing with it the training camp. He had more things to worry about than his crush on Aomine.

Still, he didn't immediately get up. He was comfortable right here and he wouldn't mind spending some more minutes in this position, no matter how his back might hurt afterwards. Apparently his mother agreed because she too went silent and just kept holding him.

.

Time passed. Summer break started and he spent a week training with Shutoku and Seirin, and really, what a joke the universe had played on them. Of course it wasn't enough they had lost against them; no, they also had to spent a week sharing the same space and training together.

At least it was over now and they were taking a break. The Winter Cup preliminaries were coming, where they would face Seirin again but for now Otsubo had given them all a week before they started going to school everyday to practise. Not that Shintaro wasn't planning on practising and continuing his exercise regiment over that week.

On the first day he had played basketball on his courtyard but after sending the ball through the hoop over fifty times he had grown bored with it. It was better to do it in a place that was not his house, even if he did the exact same thing. So, the next day he found himself walking the streets of Tokyo, sometimes even catching a bus with a backpack which only held two things: a basketball and his lucky item of the day. Well, and his wallet, cellphone and house keys but those were the unimportant items.

He had now three days left before going back to practising at school (not counting the current one) and he decided to visit an old basketball court besides Teiko middle school. He hadn't played there since the second year. After all the others had barely shown up to practise, much less to play just for the fun of it. Not that Shintaro played just for fun, it had simply been nice to have a change of scenery.

The court was deserted when he got there, which didn't really surprise him. It had usually been used by middle schoolers and they were all on break.

He started by warming up. Then, after some stretching he started shooting the ball, going farther back every time the ball went in (which was always) until he was standing on the other side of the court. He wasn't one to gloat but he had to admit that not everyone had his skill (a small part of his mind reminded him that even with that amazing shooting, he had lost, but he drove it away with another shot).

“Wanna play?” Of course Aomine would choose to speak when Shintaro was about to shoot. Instead of still shooting and possibly missing, Shintaro just pulled the ball down and turned around.

Aomine was standing there in practise clothes and holding a basketball. His face was holding that smug look, just like he'd started doing over two years before. It had always made him want to punch him and today was no different; although he was pretty sure he wouldn't have mind kissing it better afterwards and really, he had to stop having these thoughts. They were inconvenient.

“Sure,” was what he answered. The last time he'd heard from Aomine had been on his birthday, when the other teen had sent him a “happy birthday” text. Shintaro had texted back “thank you” and that had been it.

Aomine put his ball besides Shintaro's bag and then he was quickly walking towards him. Shintaro immediately started dribbling.

Aomine took his ball and the next thirty minutes, maybe sixty, were spent like that, with one having the ball and the other trying to take it and in a serious game Shintaro would have shot the moment he was holding the ball, but as it was he still tried to go through Aomine, which didn't work very often. He could tell himself all he wanted that he was checking out the competition, that there was always the possibility of them playing against each other on an official game, but the truth was this was more fun. Shintaro and Aomine might do no more than smirk at each other, but Shintaro was pretty sure that coming from them that equalized a real smile.

When they finally stopped, they were both sweating and breathing hard. Aomine basically threw himself to the floor while Shintaro lowered himself with a bit more grace.

“How's the break going?” Shintaro asked after their breathing had become more or less regularized and that got him a look. The two of them had never been the type to make small conversation but Shintaro had decided that if he wanted things to change, then he was going to have to take the first step. That and perhaps spending more time with Aomine would remind him that he was a smug bastard and that just because he was gorgeous and so was his basketball, his heart really could choose better.

“Fine; went to the mountains for the training camp. You?”

“Beach. And how much training did you do?”

Aomine's smirk was answer enough and they went back to being silent. Shintaro wanted to start a conversation but he wasn't sure what about. School was a no-deal and basketball... he didn't need a reminder that he had lost against Seirin, while Aomine had won.

“Why are you here?” Surprisingly the question came from Aomine and Shintaro sat, letting his legs stretch, and looked sideways. Aomine was still laying, with one hand on his chest and the other besides him, looking up at the sky.

“We only start practising at school in a few days.”

“So you came here?”

“I wanted somewhere to practise that wasn't my house. You're here too.”

Aomine snorted, “yeah, I don't have a reason. Guess I was missing the old days or something.”

“And do you?” Aomine turned his head to stare at him with a confused look. “Miss the old days,” Shintaro clarified and the other went back to looking up.

Some seconds passed before he received an answer. “Sometimes.”

Shintaro looked at him and finally said, “me too.” Aomine didn't glance away from the sky and eventually Shintaro decided to join him, laying down again.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd stared up at the sky. The clouds were moving slowly and he was pretty sure that he was going to fall asleep in no time. Finally he understood why the roof had been Aomine's favourite place for a nap.

“Do you remember when you told me about the constellations?” Aomine asked in a soft tone.

“I can't do the same with the clouds,” Shintaro answered and that brought a laugh from Aomine. It stopped immediately like it had been a long time since he'd laughed, and he wasn't exactly sure how to do it. Shintaro recognized the feeling.

“That's okay. We can just say what they remind us of. That one looks like an ice-cream.”

Shintaro wanted to scoff and say something about how they weren't children, but instead he looked at what Aomine was pointing at. “It looks more like a hat.”

“What? Hat? I think you need to get better glasses.”

Shintaro scoffed but pointed at a cloud, “that one looks like a bear.”

“It looks more like a building. What about that one? You can't tell me it doesn't look like a car.”

“Sure, if a car has wings. It looks like a bird.”

“It can be a flying car, like in the films.”

“I'm sure it's going to be a while before we see one of those in real life.”

“You don't know that. Someone could be inventing one right now,” Aomine said and Shintaro looked at him. Aomine was staring at the sky and he could see how his face was relaxed.

“You're right,” he said in a softer voice than he meant to and Aomine turned his face to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you sick? You never say I'm right.”

“That's because you usually aren't,” at least Shintaro's voice was now back to normal.

Aomine didn't say anything and Shintaro fell silent as well, forcing himself to look back to the sky. Of course the first cloud he picked up had the shape of a heart. He thought about pointing it out but decided that he liked the silence.

So, they stayed like that. Just looking at the sky and breathing calmly and Shintaro could see the day starting to change colours. When he finally decided that it would be dark soon, he sat up and looked sideways. Aomine had fallen asleep, just as he'd expected.

Finally, he had the answer to his question. Aomine did look soft when he slept, but still not as soft and relaxed as he'd looked years before. While he wouldn't have minded to keep looking for some more time, he decided that it was a creepy behaviour so he moved on his knees to wake the other teen up.

He had to shake Aomine's shoulder twice, the second with more strength, to finally rouse him up.

Aomine yawned and then stretched like a cat, moving his members all around and rising a bit from the ground. His shirt pulled up and revealed not just perfect abs, but a trail of hair and nope, Shintaro did not need that in his head. He quickly got up and walked to where he had left the ball rolling around, picking it up and putting it in his backpack.

“How longer before you start your normal practise?” Shintaro turned around to Aomine, who standing in the middle of the court, with both hands on his pockets.

“Three days.”

“Wanna meet here tomorrow at the same hour?” Aomine was looking at him as if he didn't care either way but if he didn't care about the answer, then he wouldn't have made the question, right?

“Sure,” Shintaro answered because he didn't see a reason not to and also because, well, he didn't want to deal with his mind insulting him for the next couple of weeks for this lost chance.

Aomine nodded and then went to pick up his ball. “Which way you going?”

The closest bus stop was on the left, but Shintaro knew the way to Aomine's house was through right and there was also a bus stop that way (if a bit father) so that's the direction he chose.

They walked silently for some minutes until Aomine broke it by asking, “how's your crush going?”

Shintaro really couldn't be blamed when he almost tripped over nothing. He was aware that he was blushing when he asked in a voice that cracked in the first syllable, “what is it to you?”

Aomine shrugged, “just curious. So?”

“It's the same,” Shintaro finally answered. Maybe if he played it cool headed Aomine would leave it alone.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that it's at the same point it was the last time we talked.”

“That was two months ago. Haven't got the balls to tell him about it? Here, I can lend you one,” he said and with a smug smirk trusted his basketball at Shintaro, who glared.

They continued on silently for some seconds but Shintaro knew that sooner or later Aomine was going to make more questions about it. Maybe it wasn't too late to say he had taken the wrong turn and go back.

“Why haven't you told him?”

“I don't know how he'll react.”

“Like, if he's going to hate you?” Aomine frowned, “he doesn't know you're gay?”

Shintaro didn't answer right away. The list of people he'd said those three words were small and Aomine was one of the few in it. It probably wouldn't take him long to figure out if he said yes; then again, this was Aomine. He could be very inattentive sometimes, and this coming from Shintaro, who had had to be told by Kise that Momoi had been harbouring a crush on Kuroko for years and still was.

“He does,” he finally said because there weren't many answers he could give to that question.

“And what? Did he stop talking to you because of it? If that's it, then I don't see how you can still like him. He sounds like an asshole,” Aomine was looking at him with a strange look. It was a look he used to give Kuroko sometimes, the one that said that he would beat up anyone that had a problem with him.

“He hasn't stopped talking to me,” Shintaro said before Aomine started making plans to beat up his crush. “You haven't either,” he said before Aomine could continue speaking, a bit to change the subject but also to see where exactly Aomine stood on the matter.

“Stopped talking to you? I don't care that you're gay. You're still the same boring Midorima.”

“Thank you so much,” Shintaro said in deadpan tone.

“You're welcome,” Aomine answered and they went back to being silent. They were reaching Aomine's street, “I think you should tell him. You'll never know his reaction otherwise, right?”

Shintaro didn't say anything. Of course Aomine was right, but the thing about only wondering about things was a two edges sword. Yes, he would never hear a yes this way, but he would never hear a no either.

“See ya tomorrow,” Aomine said once they'd reached his house and Shintaro stopped as well. Aomine didn't immediately open the door, instead turning around and raising an eyebrow. He waited in silence.

This was it. Shintaro could almost hear his heart beating – if this was a cartoon it would be shown doing it outside his body. Could he do this? Why not? At least he would have an answer. If it was no, he could move on. If it was yes... No, he couldn't think of the most unlikely possibility.

Could he do this? He still had three more days of playing basketball just with Aomine; he could do this another afternoon. But what if the other cancelled for some reason? No, this was it. He could do this. No, he couldn't. His hands were starting to sweat and his heart kept beating too fast. He felt he was going to pass out at any moment. This was terrible. Why did people have crushes? He hated this feeling. Sometimes. Other times it made him smile stupidly.

He couldn't live like this anymore. He had to make a choice.

“I like you,” had the words actually gotten out? It didn't matter if they hadn't; Shintaro had already turned around and was walking towards the bus station. He was walking at a slow pace, because if he did it faster he was pretty sure his legs weren't going to hold his weight. Had he just done that? He had, hadn't he? How was he supposed to face Aomine tomorrow? Did Aomine even want to see him again?

“Oy!” He heard behind him and oh, he knew that voice. He turned around very slowly and true enough, there was Aomine running towards him. Since Shintaro had been walking slowly, it didn't take the other very long to catch up. “What the hell was that?”

He was angry. Should Shintaro apologize? No; this wasn't his fault, he couldn't control who he liked.

“If you're going to make a confession, you should at least do it right,” Aomine's voice pierced through Shintaro's brain but he couldn't make sense of the words and before he could unveil the meaning, he was feeling... he was feeling someone's, Aomine's, lips against him.

Aomine was kissing him. Aomine had his eyes closed, was putting a hand on Shintaro's cheek and was holding his lips against his.

Shintaro was being kissed. He had never been kissed. What should he do? He decided the first step should be to close his eyes and then... then he tried to respond, moving his lips slowly. They continued like that for some seconds and slowly Shintaro put both hands on Aomine's waist. He quickly found out that he liked that position. Just as he liked the feeling of the other's lips and even the touch of his hand on his cheek.

Aomine was the one to draw back, taking with him his hand, but Shintaro didn't let his hands fall so Aomine was still only inches from his face.

“That's how you confess,” Aomine's voice cracked and Shintaro did something extremely unlike himself: he smiled. Not a smirk, not a mean or smug smile, but a real, small and honest smile. Aomine smiled back and immediately looked like the kid Shintaro had met three years before.

They stayed like that for some seconds while Shintaro's brain tried to catch up to the last few minutes. Aomine had not been angry about being confessed to, but about the way he had been confessed to? Well, that... sounded like Aomine, really. And it sounded just like him to kiss someone without asking permission either. Shintaro couldn't help but to frown slightly at that thought.

“You kissed me without asking,” he said and Aomine raised an eyebrow.

“You told me you liked me,” he sounded smug and Shintaro wanted to punch him. And also kiss him again. He did neither and simply squinted. “What, you didn't like it?” While Aomine tried to keep a “don't really care about the answer” atmosphere around him, he was still looking away and had even started to fidget a bit, like he wanted to be let go of. Shintaro would have let go if he truly believed that the gesture would have done more good than bad, but as it was he was pretty sure that he would be sending the wrong message.

“I liked it,” Shintaro said and Aomine immediately stopped his fidgeting, but only glanced at his face, quickly looking away again. “But you could have asked.”

Aomine simply rolled his eyes but before Shintaro could continue, he smirked, “then, would you like me to kiss you again?”

Shintaro really didn't like how smug he sounded at that; like a kiss from him was a gift from the gods but well, it wasn't like Shintaro didn't want them to kiss again, so instead of answering, he was the one to initiate contact.

Since it was his first time doing it, he was just glad he kissed Aomine's lips and not anywhere else. He was pretty sure that Aomine would not react like in the TV shows his sister watched, but instead would have mocked him for eternity.

This time Aomine's arms went around his neck and Shintaro held him with more strength. While Shintaro had no idea whether Aomine had some experience in the kissing department or not, he decided to let the other one lead. He was a bit surprised to feel the other's tongue against his lips but decided to let it in, being curious about the feeling.

It was strange, but not uncomfortable at all. Shintaro moved his tongue against Aomine's and he could swear he heard a moan (which did not come from him because they were in public and- oh crap, they were in public). He drew back and Aomine unconsciously followed.

“Why'd do you stop?” Aomine murmured in a raw voice and Shintaro became aware of how his shorts had become tighter.

“We're in public,” he too murmured, not exactly sure why.

Aomine finally opened his eyes, but didn't seem like he was as preocuppied by that detail like Shintaro was.

“My mom's home but if you promise to keep quiet...” Aomine was smirking and Shintaro quickly let his arms drop and took some steps back.

“Why do I like you?” Shintaro asked looking up at the sky because really, he wondered about this daily.

“Because of my good looks and awesome basketball skills,” Aomine immediately answered, still smirking.

“I really want to punch you.”

“Eh; I'd still look good,” Aomine was smirking again, this time an even bigger one and Shintaro turned around to walk away. “So, I'll see you tomorrow?” Sounded behind him and he could hear the nervousness, even if when he turned around Aomine was standing with both hands on his pockets, and looking at him like he was a king in the presence of a peasant.

This is the guy he had fallen for. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound, or however the expression went. He nodded and Aomine gave him a small smile for that; not as big as he had after they'd first kissed but it was still something and Shintaro's stomach was still tight the entire ride home.

.

Shintaro passed the rest of the day in a kind of daze. Takao called him to invite him over, but Shintaro declined, telling him he was tired from practising, when in fact he was well aware that Takao would take one look at him and know that something had happened. Shintaro was pretty sure that it wouldn't take the other long to make him spill the truth, not so much because he was a terrible liar (which was true) but because Takao was like a dog with a bone when he was around someone that had a secret they weren't willing to share.

Shintaro was aware that he acted a bit out of character, spending pretty much all night with a small smile on his face, which was not usual. Neither the smile nor the happiness. Not that Shintaro was a sad guy, he wasn't; but he wasn't an overly happy one either. He normally just felt neutral about his days. But that day he felt happy.

His family noticed it, of course, but his sister was the only one to comment on it.

“Are you happy for going back to practise?” She rolled her eyes, “you're so weird, onii-chan; most people would be unhappy for that.”

Shintaro hadn't denied it, but he knew his parents were aware that the reason for his happiness was different. They had both smiled at him during dinner several times and Shintaro had hugged them before going to his bedroom, a not so usual act.

In his bedroom he had tried to read a book, aware that there was no way he would be able to fall asleep immediately, and when that hadn't worked he had tried to do some homework, having forgotten momentarily that he had done it all before going to the training camp.

Finally, he had left his room and had gone in search of his family to play cards, something they had done regularly until some years before.

That had been how he had spent his evening: playing cards with his family, looking at his phone often and mostly trying not to smile in a goofy manner or blush (sometimes both) whenever he remembered the events of the day.

When he had finally retired to bed, he had replayed the kisses over and over, and then had imagined the next day. He was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep with a smile, and had probably kept it during the whole night, because he woke up with his cheeks hurting.

At least he was able to pass the morning and part of the afternoon not walking around the house with a stupid smile. When he finally left to go to the basketball court he couldn't help but to start feeling nervous, another feeling he really didn't enjoy. He didn't enjoy wondering whether Aomine had regretted what they had done the day before, or whether all he wanted was a make-out buddy because while Shintaro didn't want a marriage or anything like that, he wouldn't mind having a... could he say the word, even in his own mind? Yes; he could. He wouldn't mind a boyfriend.

He was feeling pretty nervous when he finally arrived. Aomine was already there, shooting the ball.

Shintaro didn't immediately approach him, instead kept standing looking at the other. While he didn't appreciate how smug Aomine was about how he looked and the skills he had, it couldn't be said that those are lies.

“You gonna stand there for long?” After a couple of shootings, Aomine finally turned around, with a raised eyebrow while the ball rolled around. He went to pick it up and Shintaro finally put his backpack on a corner, taking out his jacket and putting it on top of it after folding it.

Once Aomine had the ball, he didn't waste time talking, instead immediately starting to dribble and soon enough Shintaro started to forget his nervousness, only thinking about the game and the plays he needed to do and the moves he needed to make to stop Aomine.

When they finally stopped they were both drenched in sweat and breathing hard and at least Shintaro had lost track of the points. He put both hands on his knees and dropped his head, trying to breath a little easier. Even in practise it didn't happen very often that he got this out of breath – playing against Aomine wasn't just physically demanding, but psychologically as well.

“Did I go too hard against you?” Shintaro glanced up and while Aomine was also breathing hard, he also had an extremely annoying smirk on his face.

“How does your team deal with you?” He asked and is pretty proud when he can get the words out without almost passing out of lack of air.

Aomine shrugged, “I'm the best player they have; they don't care what I do as long as I score.”

Shintaro frowned at that. The main reason he had chosen Shutoku as his high school had been because they were a serious school and while they did allow him his three wishes, he's pretty sure that if he started skipping practises they wouldn't allow him to play on official games, best scorer or not.

Aomine started walking towards him, and while he was still smirking, he also looked just a bit nervous. Shintaro pushed his gasses up his nose and that made Aomine's smirk grow.

“Why are you nervous?” He was standing only a couple of feet away so Shintaro was able to hear his whisper.

If there was one thing that Shintaro was always, that was being honest. “I don't know what you want from me.”

Aomine frowned and moved his head to the side, like dogs did when they were confused. He smiled before speaking, still in a low tone, but no longer a whisper, “what do you want me to want?”

Shintaro squinted. There's a difference between being honest and saying everything he's thinking, and Shintaro isn't that good at the second part, at telling other people what he's feeling. Half the time he can't even tell himself about it, much less others. So he kept silent, not being able to say exactly what he wished for.

Whether Aomine was aware he was uncomfortable or he had just remembered that this was how Shintaro had always been, he finally sighed and passed a hand through his hair. “I don't know what I want. I...” he looked away. None of them was very good at this 'speaking what you're feeling' type of thing but none of them was telepathic either, so someone was going to have to go first.

“I like you,” Shintaro started and Aomine turned and looked him in the eyes, not stopping him. “And I liked kissing you. I...” He took a deep breath, “I wouldn't mind doing it again. And... other things.”

“Like holding hands?” Aomine looked like he wants to mock that, but his voice sounded nervous and he was moving his weight from one foot to another, a tic Shintaro hadn't seen him do in years.

“Yes, and... going out; not to play basketball but to watch a film and eat...” Shintaro was blushing. He kind of wanted to turn away and run but that wouldn't do any good, so he took a deep breath instead and looked at Aomine, waiting for the other to say something.

Aomine was frowning, but Shintaro didn't let that discourage him. It was good that the other one was thinking seriously about what he wanted.

“I...” Aomine took a deep breath and put a hand on his neck, massaging it. “I wouldn't mind that. I would... like it,” he looked like he just bit into a lemon. They were silent for a while after that, with Aomine not looking him in the face and Shintaro trying to will his blush away. “So, what do we do now?” Aomine voice sounded normal, but he was still not looking at him.

“We could... take a walk?” Shintaro asked because he didn't have any desire to watch a film; it would just be two hours of sitting beside Aomine and wondering over and over if he should hold the other's hand and he was pretty sure that what they needed was to have a conversation.

“We could get an ice-cream,” Aomine said and they were probably both thinking the same thing; about the store that was just a few streets away and that they had used to visit almost religiously, at least until third year.

“Okay,” Shintaro said and went to pick his things, and putting his jacket inside his backpack, squeezing it besides his ball and the pencil-case (today's lucky item).

When he turned back to the court Aomine was standing besides him, holding his ball under his right arm. He was moving the fingers of his left hand, like he was nervous and the idea of going for a walk was not wondering on whether they could or not hold hands, but it was Aomine who first put the thought on his mind and now he couldn't stop thinking about it so after putting his backpack on his shoulders, Shintaro thought “screw it” and grabbed Aomine's hand. Aomine looked startled, but he smiled and put his fingers between Shintaro's.

They didn't talk while walking and their hands were sweating but neither let go and Shintaro kept stealing glances, once in a while catching Aomine's eyes, and by the time they had arrived to the store they were both blushing.

Some people gave them strange looks but you couldn't say being almost two meters didn't come with advantages, so no one actually said anything to them.

They finally let go once they reached the store and each bought their own ice-cream, the same flavour they used to have all those years ago.

They walked around a bit more in silence until they reached a park and sat side by side, not touching each other, on a bench.

It didn't take them long to finish the ice-creams (and then to throw the sticks to a garbage can that was several feet away) and they had spent the whole time in silence. Shintaro liked silences, but not when they were this uncomfortable.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe they should just ignore the events of the day before. Maybe they should never talk again. Okay, Shintaro might have been freaking out a bit.

“I... liked when we kissed too,” Aomine said and Shintaro glanced at him. As expected Aomine was looking forward and it took Shintaro some seconds to put his sentence in a context. Right; he'd said he'd like their kissing. He blushed.

“Would you like to do it again?” Shintaro asked and grimaced when his voice cracked.

“Yes, but...” Aomine scratched the side of his head. He sighed, “I don't know how to be a boyfriend.”

Shintaro looked at Aomine. He had liked to hear that word. “I don't know how to do that either. I think we just need to do what we like, and if one of us is uncomfortable with something, then we should talk about it,” Aomine glanced up at the word “talk” but went back at looking at the floor. “Did you like holding hands?”

Aomine kept looking at the floor for some seconds, but finally he straightened up and looked Shintaro in the eyes. He nodded.

“I liked it too,” Shintaro said and he would really appreciate if he could stop blushing.

Aomine gave him a smile, one that could almost be called cute and grabbed Shintaro's hand. They continued to be in silence, but it wasn't as uncomfortable as before. It still wasn't comfortable but Shintaro didn't feel like running away anymore. Instead, he felt like staying and trying his best to make this work.

Finally, the silence was cut by Aomine's coughing, which made Shintaro look at him because that had not sounded like an honest cough. “Would you...” Aomine was blushing. “Like...” He made another coughing sound. “Wouldyouliketotellpeopleaboutus?”

Shintaro blinked. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard someone speak that fast. “What?” Truly, he was not able to decipher the meaning of the question. If it had even been a question.

“I asked if you'd like to tell people about us,” Aomine was back at looking at the floor but at least he'd been able to speak in a manner that was understandable.

Shintaro blinked at the other. That wasn't something he'd really thought about. “Would you?”

“I asked first!” Aomine said and looked up. He blinked several times but at least didn't look away, “I... don't know; I wouldn't mind but it's still kind of soon...?”

Shintaro nodded, “we can wait some weeks and then we'll talk about it.”

Aomine looked surprise and then he smiled, a real, big one that stole Shintaro's breath away. He nudged Shintaro's shoulder and then kept his weight there. It was a nice feeling. “You think we'll last weeks?”

Shintaro pushed his glasses up his nose, “don't you? There is no reason to begin a relationship if one of us is already thinking of its ending.”

Aomine choked on his own spit. “Rela-” he was blushing and Shintaro wanted to take a picture of it.

Shintaro raised an eyebrow, “isn't that what we are?” It was fun being the one mocking the other. He finally understood why Aomine was always doing it.

“Yes, but...” Aomine made a weird sound and then put his head on his hands. “I don't know how to do relationships.”

Shintaro patted him on the head, “there, there, I'm sure you won't be that bad.”

Aomine immediately raised his head, and glared, “I'll be the best boyfriend you'll ever have.”

Shintaro laughed; good to know Aomine hadn't completely lost his competitive strike.

“You're right,” Aomine continued, this time in a softer tone. “We shouldn't start something already thinking of when it's going to end. I... I want to see where it's going.”

He was blushing and Shintaro thought it was the cutest thing he had ever seen and his heart was beating fast, but this time it wasn't in a nervous manner, but in an excited one. He kissed Aomine.

Well, if it could be called that. It was just a peck, trying to make the other feel better. When he drew back Aomine had closed his eyes. He opened them slowly and with the hand not holding Shintaro's he put his finger on his lips.

Yes, they were going to make this work.


	4. Part IV

July

 

They were laying on the floor, trying to get their breathings back to normal and Shintaro thought, I'm going to miss this. It was his last day before Shutoku re-started practise and he knew that it was going to be harder and more demanding than ever, so he doubted he would have time for their little one-on-ones anymore.

He looked sideways. Aomine had both hands on top of his stomach and had his eyes closed. The sun was beating on his face and he looked... kind of like an angel. Shintaro snorted at the thought because there was literally no one that was less angelic than the guy besides him.

“What?” Aomine muttered, still with his eyes closed.

Shintaro opened his mouth to say “nothing” but then thought better of it. Why not say what he had just thought? He was pretty sure it would make the other teen blush, which was always nice to see (and did not happen as often as it did to Shintaro), “just thought you looked like an angel.”

Shintaro tried his hardest not to laugh out loud when Aomine sat upright, glaring at him and opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Unfortunately, if he was sporting a blush, I wa's impossible to see, considering he was still red from playing basketball. “You... What? I...” He flopped back down and continued to mutter something, but Shintaro couldn't understand the words.

Shintaro managed to quiet down his laughter, but he was still sporting a small smile, which he was aware had started to happen more and more often. It wasn't that he didn't like to smile, it simply didn't happen all that often; he didn't smile at everything like Kise, he actually needed a reason to show his happiness. And he was happy, he realized; Aomine made him happy.

He turned to the other teen, who was still muttering, but now had an arm across his eyes, and pondered on telling him that. It would make him mutter even more, probably, wish would be entertaining to see but Shintaro decided to keep his words for another day.

Shintaro went back at looking at the sky. He breathed in and out like his yoga instructor had taught him (he had yoga classes twice a week to improve his posture) and felt himself relax. It was a beautiful day; sunny but not too hot and you could see more blue than white.

“Are you sleeping?” He heard from his side and turned his head. Aomine hadn't just turned his head towards him, but his whole body as well, holding his head under one hand. Shintaro didn't answer; the answer was obvious. He almost turned back to the sky but it was nice looking at Aomine's eyes. They were dark blue and right now they were looking soft. Content. Shintaro smiled his small smile and was rewarded with Aomine's own.

Then the other teen frowned, “we are so corny.”

Shintaro frowned, “corny?”

“Yeah; you called me an angel, and now we're just staring and smiling at each other like two idiots.”

“I didn't call you an angel, I said you looked like one. I should add that my second thought after that was, “what an idiotic idea”.”

Aomine rolled his eyes, “and here I was thinking you were being romantic,” he dropped dramatically to the side, “romance is dead.”

“Would you like me to buy you flowers and serenade you?”

“Please; I know you sing horribly. But you could play to me,” Aomine turned his head to him.

Shintaro raised an eyebrow, “what is it with you and the piano?”

Aomine shrugged, “I always liked to hear you play. You look... relaxed; you don't look like that playing basket. It's like you drop your guard,” he went back to looking at the sky, “or something.”

Shintaro didn't say anything, instead he moved his hand until he was touching Aomine's, who turned his palm up so they were touching. It was weird how comfortable they had started to be in each other's company in such little time. Not that there hadn't been awkward moments (they still weren't one hundred percent comfortable with greeting each other with a kiss), but all in all they had gotten quite used to each other.

Usually they went for an ice cream after their games but today they simply stayed silent and looked at the sky (and sometimes at each other). It was an extremely pleasant and relaxing afternoon. Shintaro hoped there would be many more to come.

When they had finally gotten up the sky had already turned to several different colours.

“Should we hold hands and wait for the sunset?” Aomine asked him with a raised eyebrow when they were ready to leave. Sometimes Shintaro didn't know whether he was being asked a serious question or being mocked. He decided in this case the second option was the most likely one to be real in this situation; if Aomine really wanted to watch the sunset, he could just ask for it. So, Shintaro simply rolled his eyes and started walking. “Like I said, romance is dead,” Aomine said in a fake sad tone one he'd caught up to him.

Shintaro rolled his eyes, but stopped. Aomine kept on walking for some steps, until he noticed he was alone and turned back with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

“If you want to watch the sunset, all you have to do is ask.”

Surprisingly that made Aomine start to blush. “I... I was joking.”

“So?” Shintaro shrugged, “that doesn't mean we can't do it. Come on; I know a good spot,” and he started walking without waiting for the other. Aomine quickly caught up and put an arm around Shintaro's waist, something he seemed to like doing very much, even more than holding hands. Shintaro was forced to either put an arm around the other's back or around his neck. He would admit that he wasn't very fond of either position, so he simply put it on the other's lower back.

They walked silently for about ten minutes until they finally reached a little hill that was just some streets away from Teiko school. They climbed it without difficulties and once they were on the top the sun was pretty much already set. Still, it was a pretty spectacular view; Shintaro couldn't remember the last time he'd simply taken some time to watch the sunset.

Aomine grabbed his hand and that was how they watched the sunset. Once the sun was finally gone and they started to go back down Shintaro asked, “what was that about romance being that?”

“Yeah, yeah, you're a real gentleman. But I'm still waiting for my serenade.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, “what about you?”

“What about me?” Aomine asked, not paying attention, instead looking at the path they had to follow.

“If I serenade you, what will you do? We should both do romantic things.”

“Are you saying you'll only play me a song if I do something nice? That's not romantic.”

Shintaro shrugged, “I never claimed to be.”

They had reached the foot of the hill and Aomine turned to him with a dramatic gasp, putting his hand against his chest, “what? You... I have been tricked!” Then he put a hand against his forehead, “what has the world gotten to? I'm not sure we can go back to how it was...”

Shintaro rolled his eyes (something he had starting doing more and more and if he started to need new glasses, he was going to make Aomine pay for it) and started walking away.

“You should apologize! With a serenade,” Aomine was smirking when he caught up.

“You really want to hear me playing the piano, don't you?” Shintaro asked, glancing sideways and to his surprise, instead of doing something over dramatic, Aomine just nodded. “I'll call you next week when I'm free.”

“Wait,” Aomine stopped and frowned.

“What is it?” Shintaro asked, but not in an annoyed tone. Aomine didn't seem to want to joke around – although with him you never knew.

“Just... is that the only time we'll see each other this week?” He shrugged, “I guess I just got used to seeing you everyday.”

Shintaro nodded; he too had gotten used to it and not only that, but had started looking forward for their little rendezvous. He didn't want to stop either.

“This way we won't get bored with each other too fast,” he said, trying to make light of the situation. It's not like they moved farther away than a bus ride.

“It's impossible to get bored with me,” Aomine said in a haughty tone but at least he was smiling.

“I'm sure Momoi doesn't think so.”

“She loves me.”

“She's used to you. Like a parasite.”

Aomine raised both eyebrows, but then laughed, showing off his sparkling teeth. Then he approached Shintaro and bumped into him, “says the guy who's dating me.”

“I think we've already established that I have horrible taste.”

Aomine sighed, “what did I say about romance? You're sleeping on the couch.”

“We don't actually share a house.”

“That doesn't matter; you have a couch, sleep on it.”

Shintaro didn't even deign to answer that, but when he made to start walking again, he was stopped by Aomine's hands on his waist. Then he felt lips touching his and he forgot all about being annoyed with the other teen.

They hadn't kissed very often, so neither had gotten completely comfortable with it, but it was still good. It took some seconds for Shintaro to relax, but eventually he did it and put his arms around Aomine's neck. It wasn't the most comfortable position, seeing as he was the tallest one, but it wasn't bad either.

They stayed like that for a while, kind of frozen in their own world and Aomine was right; they were corny.

Aomine drew back first but neither loosened their hold. Then he put his head against Shintaro's chest, which made him drop his arms to Aomine's back. He put his head on top of the other's. Again, not the most comfortable position, or even all that relaxing, but it was good. Homey.

Finally, Aomine sighed and loosened his hold, taking a step back when Shintaro did the same. Then he grabbed Shintaro's hand and started walking towards the bus stop.

They walked silently and once they'd reached it, Aomine dropped his hand.

“I'll call you,” Shintaro said and Aomine gave him a quick final kiss.

“I'll wait for it,” he smirked and then he was walking away.

 

August

 

It was the twentieth of August and school would re-start in twelve days. In those weeks Shintaro had spent most of his time practising basketball, the piano and spending time with Aomine. It had been strange in the beginning; none of them was a big fan of texting, so it was weird to simply send out “hello, how are you?” and then go through the whole “fine, thank you, how are you?” and so on, but by the second day Aomine was skipping all that and simply sending out a text about what he was doing, or how bored he was (Shintaro received about three texts a day with that). They'd only met five times, and the first two had also been a bit awkward.

It was kind of strange, when Shintaro thought about it. They'd never been friends, only classmates and team mates and if Shintaro had had to call them something before they'd started dating it would have been “acquaintances”. They had gone through that directly to being in a romantic relationship.

That day he'd been the one to call Aomine once he'd gotten home a bit after 6pm and was now telling him his thought. Aomine simply snorted from the other side.

“Isn't it obvious? This way when you start annoying me, I can simply shut you up with a kiss.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, “you really are a romantic.”

“I try my best,” he could almost hear the shrug. “Talking about romance, are we doing something in the twenty-third?”

Shintaro frowned. He couldn't remember anything special happening that day, Aomine's birthday was only on the thirty-first.

“Does something special happen on that day?”

Aomine gasped on the other sound and Shintaro could hear him flop to his bed. “You're saying you don't remember?” He was doing that annoying dramatic voice.

“Remember what?” Shintaro too laid on his bed, but he did it with much more grace.

“It'll be our one-month anniversary!”

Shintaro was silent. It wasn't just the fact that he hadn't remembered that, but more that he couldn't see why it had to be reminded. It wasn't that much of a special date.

“Are we supposed to celebrate every month we date?” He asked in his no-nonsense voice.

Aomine snorted, “we could, if you want.”

“You just want gifts.”

“I won't say no to them.”

“Did Momoi put you up to this?”

“What? No! Why'd you ask that?” He did sound a bit annoyed, but not all that much.

Shintaro shrugged, even though he knew he couldn't be seen. “You never remembered our birthdays, it was always Momoi who did it for you. I don't even know if you remember your own birthday.”

“Says the guy who once said, “oh, it's today” when someone told him “happy birthday”,” well, he'd gotten him there. Shintaro couldn't refuse the truth, so he kept silent. “Ah, got you, didn't I?” Shintaro continued to be silent. “Anyway, I remember my birthday and no, Satsuki didn't put me up to this. I just... I don't know, I thought it could be nice.”

Now he wasn't just sounding nervous, but almost coy and while Shintaro liked all parts of Aomine (even the smug one – sometimes; when he didn't want to punch him), this was his favourite.

“We could go out to dinner,” he said, because while anniversaries, any type, weren't really a big thing for him, he wasn't against them and if Aomine wanted it, then he didn't see a problem with it. Although he would draw a line at celebrating them every single month.

“We did that two weeks ago.”

“Yes, but that was take-out. We could go to a restaurant.”

“What, one that asks for suits? I don't have a suit and I'm not buying one.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, “not suits, just not basketball shorts.”

Aomine hummed on the other side, “that sounds good.”

“Should we bring presents?” Shintaro asked because if they were doing this, then they were doing it right.

“Nah, dinner's good. Anyway, wouldn't want you not to give me a birthday present,” he could hear the smile on the other's face.

“What do you want?” Shintaro asked, a bit fearful of the answer. If he received a dirty answer, he was hanging out.

“Not something related to my sign.”

“Fine, if you want to be unlucky, have it your way,” Shintaro said but he didn't actually sound annoyed.

“Food.”

“What?” He was confused. Was Aomine hungry?

“I want food.”

“Then go grab something from the fridge,” Shintaro said and now he did sound a bit annoyed. It was like talking to a child.

“No, for my birthday. I want food.”

“Buy a cake.”

“No, no, I want you to bake me something. Didn't you say you made cupcakes for your birthday?”

“My mother and sister did most of it. I'd probably burn the house down trying to make them alone.”

“Did you just admit to not being able to do everything? Don't answer, I don't actually care. I want cupcakes and as a good boyfriend, you'll make it happen.”

“Can't I just buy them?”

“That's not special.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes but he couldn't say he hated the idea. One, Aomine had actually listened when he'd been talking about his birthday, and two, he wanted him to bake something because it was more special than the bought variety, which was definitely true. “Fine, I'll make you cupcakes.”

Aomine made a whoop sound and Shintaro smiled a warm smile, which had started to appear more and more often on his face. His family had definitely noticed and while his parents hadn't yet questioned exactly who (because they knew there was a who) had put it there, sooner or later they would. Or he would finally get tired of hearing Sachiko asking him every single day if he had a girlfriend and just get it over with.

“What do you think of telling people about us?” He asked. Now that he'd thought about it he couldn't see why not. Last time they'd discussed it had been almost a month ago (had it really been a month? It felt like it had gone too fast and too slow at the same time) and things were different now.

“Sure, why not? Oh, can we not tell Kise and surprise him on my birthday?”

“You're inviting him?”

“Yeah, and Tetsu and Satsuki And you, obviously.”

“And what will we be doing?”

“Play basketball,” Aomine used a “duh” tone and Shintaro rolled his eyes. Of course they'd be playing basketball. As far as he knew that was how Aomine celebrated his birthday every year. “So, can we?”

“Sure. Do you want to surprise Momoi and Kuroko as well?”

“I'm pretty sure nothing can surprise Tetsu and besides, Satsuki already knows. She's known from the beginning.”

“She figured it out, right?”

Aomine was silent for some seconds, “why was that your first thought? Maybe I told her.”

“No, she found out.”

Aomine sighed, “fine, she found out. It wasn't like I was walking around with a smile on my face, or drawing your name and mine on notebooks inside a heart.”

“Do you even own notebooks?” Shintaro interrupted.

“Shut up. Anyway, I wasn't doing any of that shit, but she took like one look at my face on our last day playing and she immediately knew. Freaky women sixth sense or something.”

“She just noticed you were heartbroken that we wouldn't be playing together anymore,” Shintaro mocked him, because sometimes he just couldn't help it.

“Shut up, you dick.”

“Not denying it?”

“I'm hanging up.”

If Shintaro was a laughing person he would have done it, but as it was he simply smiled serenely. Aomine didn't continue and he could hear his breathing. It wasn't as good as when they were together physically, but it wasn't bad either.

“So, I tell my parents and Tetsu and you tell your parents.”

“And Takao.”

“What about Shutoku?”

“They don't care. Although...” Shintaro didn't immediately continue.

“What?”

“Just imagining their shocked faces... Maybe I could tell Takao first and he'd have a camera ready to photograph them.”

Aomine started laughing, “and people think I'm mean...”

“Like you don't want to shock your team too.”

“I'd have to go to practise to do that.”

“You're so lazy,” Shintaro said, instead of starting an argument about how the other teen needed to start going, which he'd already done at least twice.

“Not my fault I don't need to practise to be this good.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Aomine didn't either and eventually they simply decided to disconnect. There was none of that, “you hang up”, “no, you hang up”, just a simple, “bye, talk to you later” and then Shintaro went to play the piano.

He had done as he'd promised in the end of July and had invited Aomine over when his parents had gone to work and his sister had gone swimming and had played for the other teen for some hours. Then they'd gone to his room and had made out, but their hands had never wandered anywhere below the waist, to which Shintaro was happy about. He was kind of excited about the thought of sex, but also afraid. He didn't feel he was ready and Aomine seemed to feel the same, so it was good. He liked making out, anyway.

He played classical music until he was called for dinner (nowadays he didn't play the songs his sister had given him very often; usually only when she was around to listen).

They'd barely started eating before he said, “I'm dating Aomine.” There was no reason to post-pone, especially when he was about 99% that his family's reaction would be positive.

His father raised his eyebrows, his mother frowned and his sister moved her neck to one side in a confused manner. She was the first to speak.

“Who's Aomine?”

“He was my teammate at Teiko.”

“Which one? Oh, is it the blond? He's really cute.”

“That's Kise and no, the blue haired one.”

“The blond's prettier,” she said and went back to eating. Next it was his mother's turn to speak.

“I did not see that one coming.”

“You thought I'd lied about not liking Takao, didn't you?” He asked, because he'd noticed the looks she'd been giving them whenever Takao came over.

His mother nodded, “it would have made sense,” then her eyes bulged, “not that you and Aomine don't make sense! I'm sure you make a great pair. You're both tall.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sachiko asked.

“They'll look good in the photos,” his mother said with a nod and his father laughed while Sachiko muttered “weirdos”. Shintaro just continued to eat. He was used to his mother's shenanigans.

“Well, I'm happy for you,” his father said and after Shintaro nodded to him, he went back to eating.

“Oh, but you might look a bit weird. Green hair and blue hair... I'm not sure it matches,” his mother continued on with her earlier remark.

“We could wear hats,” Shintaro said, which made his father almost choke. He found everything funny.

His mother just smiled at him, knowing that she was being mocked (but in an innocent way). To retaliate, she said, “you should invited him for dinner” and now it was Shintaro's turn to almost choke. His father started laughing while Sachiko looked at all of them one by one and muttered “weirdos” again.

“I'll ask him about it,” Shintaro finally said, after drinking some water. After that, dinner returned to its normal course and no one else made any other remark about his new status as being in a relationship besides a muttered, “the blonde's cuter” from Sachiko after they were finished. Everything was as it should be.

 

September

 

“You don't sound very well,” Aomine actually sounded worried and in other situations Shintaro would either mock him for it or just guard the tone inside his mind, but he was too pissed off to do that.

“Takao made me miss,” he said through gritted teeth. Even though it had happened more than two hours before, he was still not over it. That bastard.

Aomine laughed on the other side of the phone and Shintaro glared at the phone.

“This isn't funny.”

“I was actually getting worried, but you just missed.”

“I didn't... he made me miss!”

“Okay, okay, how did he manage that?” He could still hear the laughter behind Aomine's question but he decides to ignore it. He was mad enough as it was.

“We were practising on opposite teams and suddenly, when I was about to shoot, he screams “Shin-chan's gay and dating Aomine!””

“And that made you miss?”

“I wasn't expecting it!” Shintaro took a deep breath. He was aware he was overreacting; it wasn't like the team had even cared, being too busy at being shocked over the information they'd just received to notice Shintaro had missed, but he still didn't like missing, especially by being cheated.

Aomine laughed on the other side and Shintaro almost disconnected except strangely enough the sound was actually calming him down. Aomine had always been a happy person; well, had been one until a bit before their third year on Teiko begun. Then he'd started to change and the first thing that had lulled Shintaro into knowing that something was changing was how he'd barely hear the other laughing during practise, if at all. Of course then he just stopped listening Aomine at all.

He sighed; he really was taking this too far – but that didn't mean he was going to forgive Takao; if anything he'd definitely be the one driving him to school for the next few days.

“So you're pissed 'cuz you missed.”

“Because he cheated,” this was an important point to make. Shintaro didn't just miss.

“Are you more pissed because he outed you or because you missed?”

“I don't care that I was outed, as you put it. I care that he made me miss by being a cheating little bastard.”

“I think that's the first time I ever heard you swear. Say it again, I want to record it.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. He was getting calmer as the seconds of hearing Aomine talk went by. Really, it was out of this world how much his feelings had grown in less than two months. It made Shintaro scared, if he was to be honest, because if he was already this far deep, then what would happen if they kept this on for more months? For over a year? When they break up, which is almost certain to happen in the future, how was he going to just move on? He tried to drive those thoughts out of his mind whenever they appeared because they still haven't broken up and while Shintaro didn't exactly follow the motto of “live in the moment” he had decided that that was the only way he could be, at least regarding his relationship with Aomine, if he didn't want to spend every second of his day with doubts.

“Midorima!” He was brought back by Aomine's sort of shout.

“What?”

“I asked, what were your senpais reaction?”

“Otsubo said I better not go easy on you if we play again, Kimura lost 100 yen to Fujimoto, who had said in the beginning of the year that I was gay and Miyaji spent the rest of practise making extremely inappropriate questions.”

“Like what?”

“I am not repeating them.”

“You're no fun,” Aomine said in a child-like tone and Shintaro rolled his eyes. “Momoi told the team. She said it wouldn't do any good if they found out during a game. I can't believe she did it when I wasn't there to see it...”

“If you went to practise-”

“Yeah, yeah, I already heard all that. Anyway, how are classes going?”

Aomine must really not want to get into an argument about why he should go to practise if he was asking about school. Still, Shintaro wasn't fond of discussions all that much and he wouldn't say anything that Momoi already hadn't so he allowed the change of subject. Besides, Aomine would only change once he loses, just like Shintaro.

While he might not like to admit it, Shintaro was aware that losing against Seiring hadn't just changed how he played, being more of a team player, it had even changed him as a person. He hoped Aomine losing would change him for the better.

 

October

 

It was almost seven pm on a Saturday and Shintaro and Aomine hadn't seen each other in more than two weeks, even though they really didn't live that far away. But there was school and even Aomine has started to go to practise once in a while to prepare for the Winter Cup (even though he kept saying, “the only one who can beat me is me” which usually made Shintaro want to hit him – he couldn't believe no one at Toou had done it yet), so they didn't have that much free time. But today they had a date.

Shintaro left the house with a smile. He felt excited, even though they were just going to dinner and then to watch a film. It was nothing they hadn't done before but it still felt special. One day Shintaro will tell Aomine that every minute spent with him was special just to see his reaction. Yes, Shintaro himself will probably blush immensely, but Aomine is going to make that cute face, which goes beyond a blush – he can't keep eye contact and most time he puts both hands on his face and starts muttering. Shintaro still hasn't found out exactly what it is he mutters, but he has vowed to one day do it.

The restaurant they agreed isn't as fancy as the one they went for their one month anniversary (which had taken almost twenty minutes to stop being incredibly awkward), but it was still better than a hamburger house. Not that Shintaro didn't enjoy them once in a while, but really, they were not what he imagines when he thought of a romantic date. Surprisingly even Aomine felt the same.

(“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm romantic! I gave you flowers for our anniversary!” Aomine had screeched when Shintaro had told him that thought on a date a bit over a month before where Aomine had been the one to choose the place.)

They chose a place that wasn't far away from either of their houses and while Shintaro was planning to go home by bus, it was still early enough that he didn't feel bad walking alone. Not that he usually felt unsafe; he was almost two meters, most people wouldn't try to mess with him, but Shintaro didn't like putting himself in situations that he wasn't sure how they'll turn out. Of course you might say there isn't a single action in life that is certain, and you'd be right, but there are some that are less certain than others and the outcome of walking home alone in Tokyo is certainly one of those.

It took him a bit over twenty minutes to reach the restaurant and Aomine was already standing there. Shintaro will admit that in the beginning of their relationship he had expected to be early than Aomine in all occasions, even if he only got to the place later than their appointed time, but to his surprise that hadn't happened. Shintaro couldn't say he didn't enjoy the thought that Aomine cared enough to make sure he didn't fall asleep before their dates.

“Hello,” he said once he reached the other teen and Aomine gave him a smile, to which he returned with a smaller, but no less real one. They didn't kiss. Shintaro had told him right from the beginning that they could kiss as a greeting if they were meeting in a more or less deserted place, but he didn't have any desire to make a spectacle in a public space. Aomine hadn't been inclined to disagree.

“Hi,” Aomine returns and turns a bit, so that he's standing besides Shintaro and throws his left elbow out. Shintaro rolled his eyes but well, he never said anything about other types of physical contact and Aomine just looked so pleased with himself, that he couldn't help but to put his right arm around his. If anything, Aomine just looked more pleased and Shintaro wanted to roll his eyes again but can't because... because a pleased Aomine was a very nice thing to look at and the only thing Shintaro managed to do in answer was to smile. Earlier on he would have looked away, perhaps bitten the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smiling, but he was getting more used to this. To expressing his happiness; to sharing it.

They entered the restaurant and it wasn't empty, but it wasn't full either and they quickly found a table at a corner. It was a table meant for four but they were aware that they wouldn't be very comfortable in a smaller one.

A waitress immediately came to give them menus, which made Shintaro pleased. The restaurants that have waitresses looking down on them (he never understood if it came from them being teenagers or two males) were immediately marked down, never to be returned to.

They were silent while they thought about what they would order and only started talking after having made their requests.

“How was practise?” Shintaro asked once the waitress had left.

Aomines rolled his eyes before answering, “the same. Wakamatsu keeps being too loud, Sakurai keeps apologizing over everything and Imayoshi always has a creepy smile on his face. Seriously, the dude freaks me out; it's like he's planning on taking over the world and you know what? I think he'd manage it.”

“Momoi would stop him,” Shintaro said and Aomine laughed, but not in degrading way.

“If Susa joined him, then yeah. I'm pretty sure Imayoshi listens more to him than to the coach. What about yours?”

“It went fine, thank you.”

“No surprising yelling?” Aomine's eyes were twinkling and Shintaro couldn't believe he still hasn't let this go. Every few days he made a remark about the shot he was made to miss by Takao.

“No, no surprising yelling.”

“Shame; you sounded really hot mad,” Aomine was smiling and Shintaro blushed. Over the months Aomine had started to become more bold with his remarks and while Shintaro didn't completely hate them, he did hate what they did to his body, which was to almost turn it into a puddle. Like now.

He pushed his glasses and Aomine smirked, knowing he was nervous. Still, the other teen knew when not to push so he changed the subject to the latest guy asking Momoi for a date.

Their food don't take that long to come and they were silent once they'd started eating, besides the initial reactions to their foods. Aomine said he was having the best lasagne ever while Shintaro called his cannelloni acceptable.

(“High praise coming from you,” was the response Aomine gave him.)

“I know we agreed on watching a film afterwards, but what do you think of going ice-skating?”

Shintaro frowned. Ice-skating? He hadn't been in years; since before his father's accident he thinks. He didn't have very fond memories of it, but he couldn't say he was against the idea and it would certainly be different than going to the cinema, something they had done several times.

“It's still too warm to have a ring,” is what he started with and Aomine shrugged, but didn't say anything and after some more second in silence Shintaro nodded.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes,” he answered and while he wasn't 100% sure the night would end without injuries, Aomine was smiling at him, the one that made Shintaro feel special, and he couldn't be against anything that made his boyfriend smile like that.

After they were finished and the waitress came to take their dishes away and give them the menus for desert Aomine asked if he'd like to share something.

“No, last time you ate the whole thing.”

Aomine pouted and no, it was not cute, “that was one time and the cake was really small.”

“It was a special for two people.”

“Yeah, two people who don't eat much. I'm a growing boy.”

“So am I and I don't eat as much as you do.”

Aomine shrugged, “you must have a tiny stomach.”

Shintaro opened his mouth to argue, because his stomach was the normal size, thank you very much, but realized that that way they'd just continue that pointless argument and the only person that still made him go “you're stupid,” “no, you're stupid,” “no, you are” was Sachiko.

Eventually they decided on two deserts and to share them (Shintaro would definitely be the one dividing them).

Afterwards they started talking about the Winter Cup.

“Pretty sure we'll only be playing on the final, or semi-final,” Aomine said.

“You're that certain you'll reach it?” Shintaro asked with a raised eyebrow and Aomine's laugh was meaner than usually.

“Obviously. You're not?”

“There are strong teams this year playing. I will not promise to attend a game when I haven't even passed the preliminaries.”

Aomine rolled his eyes.

“Our ex-team mates will also be going for the crown.”

“Who do you think is going to win?”

Shintaro shrugged because he honestly had no idea. It wasn't just the teams that had a member of the Generation of Miracles that were strong; there were other teams that were strong as well and there was just one thing he was sure of. “It will be a very interesting Cup.”

Aomine smiled and he actually looked excited, if not as much as he used to be. A younger Aomine used to almost skip before games, now all he could be bothered to do was give a half-hearted smile. Shintaro covered the other's hand with his.

Aomine raised an eyebrows, but didn't actually ask anything. Maybe he had an idea of what Shintaro had just thought, maybe he didn't, either way the smile he gave next was more honest and then their deserts were arriving (the waitress didn't give a strange look to their hands and they'll be more than likely coming back). They let go and just as he'd said, Shintaro cut their deserts in halves and they shared.

Once they were done Aomine leaned back and while Shintaro didn't approve of his action, at least he wasn't belching (he'd done that once and Shintaro had spent the next five minutes telling him exactly how rude that was). Their check came and Shintaro was the one reaching for it. While they'd agreed to divide most checks, they'd also agreed that once in a while one of them was allowed to pay for the whole meal, that person just had to be the fastest in reaching the bill.

They left the restaurant and Momoi (and maybe Kise, after he'd stopped mocking them, of course) would probably call cute how their hands immediately reach for each other once they were outside and then Aomine was leading them towards the ring and Shintaro was starting to regret saying yes. Oh well, Cancer's in fifth place today and he has his lucky item (a key ring) so it won't go that badly. Hopefully.

Shintaro tells Aomine a story about when he put too much salt in spaghetti when he'd been eleven and then Aomine tells him about the time he and Momoi tried to make dinner for their parents, trying being the key word.

Shintaro had all but forgotten his nervousness by the time they'd reached the ring, but it came back a little once he looked at the people inside. Aomine squeezed his hand like he could sense it and chances were, he could.

It wasn't a very big one, so it was lucky that there weren't many people. Really, who'd go ice-skating in October? Apparently them.

Aomine paid for their entrance and then they both get the ice skates. Aomine was the first to get ready, but he waited for Shintaro.

He got inside and he'd told him on their way there that he used to do this every year, and while he wasn't exactly a pro, it was clear to see he was comfortable on the ring.

Shintaro took a deep breath before entering, not letting go of the rail once he was inside. He was not feeling safe.

“If you fall, I'll catch you.”

“It doesn't work that way,” Shintaro said, even though Aomine's words did make him feel better. “You can go,” he said when the other teen just kept skating slowly beside him. He was sure Aomine wanted to skate at a faster pace, perhaps try something risky (but not too risky, hopefully).

“Not without you,” he answered and okay, it was very romantic and Shintaro's stomach squeezed, but really, this was not the time. He wasn't planning on letting go of the rail anytime soon. “Come on, I promise not to let go,” he extended his hands and there was an unspoken, do you trust me? and Shintaro had never really thought of the answer, but in this case it was definitely a yes. Aomine wouldn't let him fall. He put his right hand on top of Aomine's one and was immediately squeezed and slowly he took the other one from the rail, putting it on Aomine's other hand.

Slowly Aomine started skating (and he wasn't even looking behind; what if they hit someone? But everyone seemed to see that the two of them weren't that safe, so everyone was going around them) and it wasn't completely horrible. Shintaro still didn't understand how one could feel safe doing this, but he wasn't against it.

Aomine was smiling and when Shintaro wasn't too busy at looking at his feet, he returned it.

“Can I let go?” Aomine asked after they'd taken a whole round of the ring and Shintaro wanted to scream “no!” but since he wasn't feeling unsafe anymore, he nodded. Aomine let go but didn't move away. Shintaro skated roughly and he could hear someone in his head (maybe Takao, Kise or even a younger Aomine) asking in a mocking tone what had happened to all his gracefulness.

“Go on; I know you've been dying to skate faster,” Shintaro told Aomine once he was sure he wouldn't fall and received a grin in answer and then Aomine was going off and Shintaro put a hand on a rail, not because he was afraid of skating alone, but because he was more interested in watching Aomine skating.

He was fast and smooth and his mind whispered beautiful before he could stop it and it was definitely not wrong. Aomine didn't look like he did on the court, but it was still a good look on him. He looked free and if he ever quit basketball, Shintaro was pretty sure he could have a career as a professional ice-skater.

“You stopped,” Aomine said once he'd taken several laps (and several people had stopped to watch him) in an accusing tone.

Shintaro shrugged, “I was looking at you.”

Aomine blushed but still managed to roll his eyes, “come on; let's skate some more,” and then he was grabbing onto one of Shintaro's hands and going off; not at a slow pass, but not as fast as he'd gone alone. Good thing because Shintaro would probably take them both down.

They finally stopped when Shintaro looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost eleven pm and he still had a bus to catch.

“That was fun,” Aomine said with a smile.

“It was.”

“More than you'd thought it would be?”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, but conceded the point, “yes.”

Aomine smiled brighter and after putting one hand on his cheek, kissed him for some seconds on the lips. Even though they were in public Shintaro didn't say anything, not really minding the contact.

They left holding hands but before they could step outside the building the man selling the tickets called them over.

“We take some pics of the skaters; would you like to buy any?” Shintaro was going to say no, because usually photos like those were always horrible and pricey, but Aomine asked to see them and to his surprise they weren't that bad. There was one of their kiss, which hey, they weren't on the ring at the time but he immediately knew they would both be taking a copy home.

In the end Shintaro bought that photograph and two others (not because he wanted them all that much, even though they did look nice, but because it would be weird to just buy the one where they were kissing), while Aomine bought eight.

“They look the same,” Shintaro said once they were finally outside and he was holding an envelope with the photographs on his hand, not having a pocket big enough for them.

Aomine sent him a glare, “of course they don't. You'd be a horrible photographer.”

“Because you'd be so much better? I don't think I've ever seen you take a photo,” Shintaro replied and Aomine squinted and of course he'd take it as a challenge.

“Next time I'm bringing my camera and then you'll see,” Shintaro didn't say anything in response, because it was impossible to take a thought out of Aomine's head and as long as he didn't expect him to be his model, it wouldn't be that bad.

They walked to the bus stop holding hands.

“My parents are going away on the weekend; you could come over if you wanted. Maybe pass the night,” Shintaro looked at him, not exactly sure about how he felt about that second part. “Don't worry; I have an extra futon. We won't do anything until you're ready,” Shintaro glared at him at that, “until we're both ready,” Aomine emended and Shintaro nodded because he knew that Aomine would be just as nervous as him and nope, not going there.

They spent the remaining minutes before the bus arrived making plans for the upcoming weekend and they kissed quickly before Shintaro got on and was being driven away, and he couldn't help but to spend the whole way looking at their kissing photo and smiling stupidly at it.


	5. Chapter V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the manga.

Day 1 of the Winter Cup

 

Shintaro was the first to arrive to the place Akashi had summoned the Generation of Miracles (because he knew he wasn't the only one to receive the... order might be too strong a word, but request was too light of one). He held the scissors and waited for the others to arrive – and they would arrive; he was sure. He didn't think even adults would go against Akashi Seijuuro.

“Hey,” he heard behind him and he turned to the bottom of the stairs. Aomine was standing there wearing Toou's black uniform. He looked good.

“Hello,” Shintaro answered with a smile and Aomine smiled back. Shintaro went to the bottom of the stairs (he'd started going up and down while he'd been waiting) and stopped a step away from Aomine. Aomine just raised an eyebrow and not waiting for any signal, closed the space between them and kissed him. Because of the scissors Shintaro just answerd with his lips, not wanting to accidentally hurt the other. Since Aomine didn't have that problem, he put both hands around his waist.

It wasn't a strong kiss; not the start of a make-out session, just a little hello kiss.

“Aominecchi! Midorimacchi!” Shintaro immediately drew back while Aomine sighed and he felt the breath on his face. Shintaro started to blush and of course they'd have to be caught by Kise. Murasakibara, Kuroko and Akashi probably wouldn't have cared.

“What are you two doing?” He was using his most annoying tone.

Aomine turned around with a raised eyebrow, “isn't it obvious?” and Shintaro blushed hard and it was really unfair how Aomine just dealt with this like it was a normal thing – especially when Shintaro had many memories of the other being a normal nervous stuttering and blushing teen. But of course he wouldn't show that facet to Kise (and okay, so maybe Shintaro liked being the only one that knew that side of Aomine).

Kise rolled his eyes, but luckily Murasakibara chose that moment to appear and thus prevented the other from saying whatever stupidity he was about to say (in his experience, Kise only said wise things about once a year, maybe twice).

“Hello,” he said in a deep voice and he was holding an unopened packet of crisps on his left hand, while holding an almost finished chocolate bar with his right one. He didn't say anything else; not that he was ever what one would call a talkative person (and this coming from Shintaro), he just went back to finishing the chocolate.

“Murasakibaracchi!” Kise exclaimed in a tone that usually hurt the people standing right by him (reason why Shintaro was not doing that; he had learnt from his mistakes, thank you very much).

“Kisechin,” Murasakibara answered but didn't follow it with anything, instead starting to try to open the packet and they were all silent while they stared at him because it wouldn't be the first time he would rip it open and drop everything to the floor – and then try to eat it from there. It was one of Shintaro's big regrets that he still hadn't stopped the other from that disgusting habit. “Three seconds rule,” honestly, stupidest thing he'd ever heard.

Then Kuroko arrived (with a shaking shadow) and of course Murasakibara and Aomine would start to argue and Kise finally noticed his scissors – and exactly what did he think they would be if not his lucky item? Shintaro didn't usually go around with scissors.

Then it was Aomine and Kise arguing and Murisakibara asking for the scissors (which no, thank you, he knows it won't end well) and then Akashi arrived, and so did Kagami, and then... well, Shintaro should have known better than to lent Akashi scissors.

And of course Akashi would leave with a sentence such as, “next time we meet will be on battle” because he was just that dramatic. Kuroko was the first to leave them with his team mates (and Shintaro might not like Kagami that much, but he hoped he wasn't hurt – Akashi really shouldn't have tried to cut him) and then so did Murasakibara without a word – and eating the crisps; he had been able to open the packet without letting them fall to the ground.

“Well, I guess I'll be going too. I'll leave you two love birds to... do whatever it is you usually do,” and then Kise also left, but not without sending them a big wink and a smirk.

Aomine didn't get up from where he was sitting on one of the steps and Shintaro turned to him, pushing his glasses up his nose; not so much because he was nervous but because they were starting to fall and also because at this point it had become a tic.

He sat beside the other. He had told Otsubo he wouldn't take long; they were going to start warming up for their first game in some minutes but he could still stay there for a small period of time. He put the scissors besides him on the step and lowered his head until it was on Aomine's shoulder. It wasn't like he was in need of comfort; he had just found this to be a very comfortable position and Aomine was always glad to put an arm around him. Case in point, it was what he immediately did.

They didn't talk. They could; about the games, about their team mates (current and former ones), about... Anything really, but silence wasn't always uncomfortable and right now it suited them. So, that was how they stayed for the two minutes it took for a phone to start ringing. Surprisingly it was Aomine's.

“What?” He answered and Shintaro rolled his eyes, because it was amazing how the other boy could go from showing somewhat sweet behaviour to being rude. “Yeah, yeah, I'm going,” he said and disconnected – probably cutting off the other person's voice, knowing him. He got up and stretched, “Satsuki's calling me. Have to go,” he said but didn't leave right away.

Shintaro got up as well; there was no reason to continue being outside. Shutoku would too start practising in some minutes.

“I'll see you later,” Aomine said and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“Good luck,” Shintaro answered and Aomine sent him a big smile, the really smug one that usually made people (Shintaro was sure he wasn't the only who got this feeling) want to punch him.

“I don't need luck,” then he was walking away and Shintaro sighed at his back.

He started walking away too, in a slower pace but stopped when he noticed a head of light blue hair walking towards him.

He waited standing for Kuroko to reach him.

“I wanted to ask you something, Midorima-kun,” if there was one thing that Shintaro had always liked about Kuroko it was how he didn't beat around the bush. What he wanted to say, he said. So he raised an eyebrow in invitation. “Akashi-kun... do you think he has changed?”

Shintaro frowned. He hadn't been expecting that question, but he still knew the answer, “no. Akashi won't change until he loses.”

“Do you think he will lose, Midorima-kun?” Kuroko asked and Shintaro snorted.

“We're just teenagers, Kuroko. We're all going to lose at one point or another in our lives. It might just take a bit more for Akashi. But I'll tell you one thing. The rest of us started to evolve naturally, but not Akashi. His Emperor Eye appeared when he was going against Murasakibara. Have you ever thought what would have happened if he'd evolved naturally?”

“You mean... Akashi-kun has another special ability?” Only one who had known him for a very long time could see that Kuroko was actually surprised at what he just heard, seeing as his face barely changed. But there were small things that Shintaro had learnt to read.

“The other Akashi, yes. But I don't think we'll be seeing that Akashi unless this one loses,” he concluded, and Kuroko didn't look as surprised, instead it looked like he was deep in thought. Kuroko had been the only one he'd sometimes talked about there existing two Akashis.

“Thank you for sharing your suspicions with me, Midorima-kun,” he said with a little bow and then walked away. Shintaro decided to do the same. He had a game in about thirty minutes; he couldn't be wasting time thinking about Akashi right now.

.

Shutoku won their first game easily. While the other team wasn't bad – they had managed to reach the Winter Cup, after all – they hadn't been able to stop his three-pointers and by the end, hadn't been trying that hard.

The whole team went to watch the Toou versus Seirin match because both teams were definitely on the list of “teams to look out for”.

Toou lost and Shintaro was pretty sure there weren't many people in the gym who'd been expecting that. Seirin probably hadn't been expecting it. He immediately looked out for Aomine, and from that distance the other boy looked fine. His shoulders were a bit slumped, but he first-bumped Kuroko (and there must be a story there; people didn't usually go around fist-bumping the people who had just beaten them), so he couldn't be doing that badly.

His team mates got up and started leaving the gym, but outside he told Takao to take the rickshaw with him. Takao gave him a knowing look, but didn't actually say anything.

Shintaro didn't stay waiting standing, instead he started walking around the gym. Aomine probably wasn't out yet, and knowing the other boy once he did come out he would probably find a quiet place and just lay down for a while.

Shintaro was on his third lap around the gym when he heard Momoi talking, something about a shopping trip and okay, that sounded a bit weird but Shintaro wouldn't try to decipher its meaning. Momoi's and Aomine's friendships was filled with things he didn't understand. It didn't bother him in the least; they were like siblings – they fought a lot, but loved each other completely.

“Midorin!” Momoi was the first one to see him and while she sounded excited, it wasn't as she usually did. After all, Toou's losses and wins were hers just as Teiko's used to be. “You came to watch the game?” She winced after asking that, looking sideways at Aomine, but he was just looking at Shintaro. He didn't look that different. A bit tired, but not... not sad, or angry. Defeated maybe, and that was a look he hadn't seen on the other's face in a long time, but he didn't look like his whole world had just changed.

“Yes,” he answered, but didn't say anything else.

She looked between the two of them and with a small smile said, “well, I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow, Dai-chan. Good luck for your game, Midorin!” She was already turning and walking away before Shintaro even had the chance to nod.

Shintaro wasn't sure what to do next. Should he hug Aomine? Go away? He certainly wasn't planning on saying, “you'll win next time” or anything like that because 1) he couldn't actually promise that and 2) it was really not something you wanted to hear after a loss.

In the end it was Aomine who made the first step. He got up slowly, lazily, and then walked a few steps until he was right in front of Shintaro and with a sigh, laid his head on Shintaro's chest. Shintaro didn't even think before quickly enveloping the other in a hug. He felt a bit uncomfortable, he had never been good at comforting others, but right now that wasn't about him. And at least he couldn't hear any weeping – he could still remember the last time he had heard someone cry and that was... really something he never wished to witness again.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that. Eventually he lowered his head, until his forehead was touching Aomine's hair and he was still not in his element, but he couldn't say it was completely bad. He hoped it was helping Aomine, at any rate.

Finally Aomine gave another sigh, this one different, like he was letting out something, and then he slowly disentangled himself.

He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't crying either, so that was a plus. However, he did look different. He looked... younger, which was a weird thought to have about someone who was still young, but it was the truth, nonetheless. Aomine looked like the kid who had first entered Teiko's gym and had immediately said, “I'm gonna be the best” and Shintaro... Shintaro had believed that twelve-year old with dark blue hair, shining eyes and an enthusiasm for basketball that seemed endlessly. Turns out, it wasn't endless, at least not back then but maybe now... he was seeing the old Aomine and it was a good look.

Shintaro decided not to speak; he would let Aomine speak if he wanted to. If not, Shintaro was perfectly happy with being silent.

“I lost,” Aomine sounded a bit amazed at what he was saying, like he couldn't completely believe it yet. Then he smiled. It wasn't the biggest or happiest smile Shintaro had ever seen, but it was still real. “I didn't think that was going to happen.”

Shintaro had to stop himself from snorting and saying, “you really put yourself in a high place” because that was certainly not the occasion and well, it wasn't like Shintaro didn't think a bit like that until last July.

So he kept silent and waited for Aomine to keep on talking. But apparently that was all he had wanted to get off his chest, because he kept silent as well. Shintaro kind of wanted to, maybe not hold him, but at least to touch him. Even though he didn't know whether his touch would be accepted or not, he decided to try it, so he raised one hand, the right one, the one which its fingers weren't all bandaged, and put it on Aomine's cheek. He didn't put pressure in it, not trying to make Aomine look away from where he was staring at the gymnasium, he just held it there, moving his thumb a little bit.

Finally, after some minutes, Aomine snorted and looked at him, “I'm not a dog, you know?” but he didn't actually move his head so instead of answering Shintaro put a bit more strength on his hold and then moved only his body from the waist up, until he was kissing Aomine on the lips. It was slow and there was almost no pressure, just lips moving against lips, but it was good. Calming.

Aomine was the first to draw back, putting a hand on top of Shintaro's right one, but not moving it away. “We should get going. You need to sleep for tomorrow's game.”

He sounded a bit sad, and Shintaro had to be a horrible person because he liked that. When they'd chatted about the games they would be playing in the Winter Cup Aomine had never sounded excited; he'd never talked with more than annoyance at the fact that the games were taking time from his sleep schedule, which had annoyed Shintaro to no end (and had been the reason that they'd barely texted or phoned each other for the past couple of weeks) but now... now he was actually feeling something and yes, it was sadness, but it was something, and that something was going to push Aomine to try harder, to practise, to actually give a damn, and that, that was worth the sadness, Shintaro believed.

So he kissed the other teen again, a bit more forcefully, but since Aomine was right and he did need to sleep he didn't allow the kiss to last for long.

Aomine was smiling softly at him and Shintaro realized that he had that look directed at him a lot of times. Aomine wasn't exactly the softest person around, he was usually loud and rude, and sometimes could be a bit of a brute, but never to Shintaro. He was always soft with him.

Shintaro moved to the side and turned, holding his hand out to Aomine, who immediately grabbed it. Then they started walking away.

 

Day 2 of the Winter Cup

 

Kobayoshi was, just as expected, a very gifted player. Unfortunately for him it was still not enough to stop Shutoku and they won their second game of the Winter Cup by more than forty points.

It felt good. Shintaro had always enjoyed basketball; he wasn't one to force himself to do something he didn't enjoy (unless it was homework – but he would never tell Takao, or Aomine, or anyone really, that) but over the last two years, especially on their last year at Teiko it had become almost... a chore. They had pointing quotas to achieve and that had been it. Practise had been just another part of the normal school day, just like classes. It had stopped being as exciting as it used to be in the first and even second year. Shintaro believed that had been when he had really started to get into the piano. Before, while he'd enjoyed it, he hadn't played every single day, not unless he was told to but afterwards... it was good having something to do just for the joy of it.

The next day they wouldn't be having a match but Otsubo had still told them to go watch (not like they had classes anyway), and the only one to complain had been Takao, but he'd stopped once Miyagi had sent him a look. Shintaro would have laughed if he too wasn't a bit afraid of Miyagi (but not to the point of pissing his pants and he was going to have to find a way to prevent Takao from telling such outrageous lies).

So they had gone home with Shintaro as the one pedalling the rickshaw (which didn't happen all that often).

“Do you think we'll win? If we go against one of your ex-team mates?” Takao asked once he'd left the rickshaw but Shintaro hadn't started to leave.

Shintaro frowned. While the reason he always had a lucky item of the day and why he kept his hands in such perfect form were so that he, they, could win, he never actually said the words out loud, because no matter what, they were never a certainty.

“I just...” Takao started and he sounded uncertain. Shintaro had never heard that tone on him, not once in all the months he'd known him. He sighed and smiled, but it was as fake as they came, even if it was one of the biggest ones Shintaro had ever seen and how was that not painful? “Never mind. It's just nerves.”

“Hey,” Shintaro called out when Takao turned around to enter his home. “I... There's something I've been wanting to try.”

Takao turned around with a raised eyebrow. “What is it?”

Shintaro wasn't sure exactly how to explain. The idea had come to him just the night before and he'd immediately thought “that's impossible” but then he'd gone to bed and had kept imagining it over and over again and now... well, it wouldn't hurt to try, right?

“I want you to give me a pass when I'm already in shooting position.”

“What?” Takao started laughing, “that makes no sense.” Then he stopped laughing and looked at Shintaro for some seconds in silence, “you're serious? You never shoot unless you're certain it'll go in. I could... I could send a wrong pass or be too early, or too late or... trick and fall. Thousands of things could happen.”

“I trust you,” Shintaro said and it was true; he trusted all of his team mates at Shutoku like he never had trusted his in Teiko.

Takao raised his eyebrows, “that's...” he grimaced, “that's the nicest thing I have ever heard. Damn, now I'm going to feel guilty whenever I mock you.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes.

“Ok,” Takao started, “let's try it. You have a hoop at your house, right?”

Shintaro nodded.

“You're still driving,” Takao said and went back to sit in the back of the rickshaw.

Shintaro rolled his eyes again, even though he couldn't be seen, but there was a small smile playing on his lips. This was going to work. They were going to make it work.

 

Day 3 of the Winter Cup

 

They watched four games. One of Seirin, one of Rakuzan, one of Yosen and then another for two other teams that were kind of medium. Seirin's game was a good one, even though in the beginning it hadn't been going too well (winning against Toou had gotten to their heads but then the whole team had been slapped by their coach and things had calmed down – and Shintaro was pretty sure Miyagi had fallen in love with Seirin's coach, going by his sigh).

Rakuzan had an easy win; Akashi hadn't even used his eyes, although he did use his “breaking ankle” trick, then dribbled slowly through his fallen rivals. No one should forget that Rakuzan didn't just have the ex-Teiko captain, but three Uncrowned Generals as well.

And then Yosen... The whole gym had been shocked at Murasakibara. He hadn't let a single shoot through. And soon enough the rival team had been too defeated to try anymore. Those types of players were the ones Murasakibara hated the most. Then again, he hated the players who never gave up even more. It was hard to know exactly who he didn't hate.

Shintaro had a flashback of second year, when he'd been having some stress with Murasakibara, and how it had been Kuroko to solve their issues.

Playing against Yosen would certainly be an interesting game, but he didn't think it would happen unless they both got to the finals.

They were all quiet when they finally left the gym.

“I'm glad you chose Shutoku,” Takao said to him and Shintaro couldn't help but to blush when the rest of the team nodded.

“The winner of this tournament, and for the remaining tournaments for the next two years will always be a team with a member of the Generation of Miracles,” Coach said and then started giving pointers for their game for next day.

 

Day 4 of the Winter Cup

 

They won their game. The team they went against was a good one, with good bases, but they were still not strong enough. Still, they didn't give up until the very last second, even thought the difference between their scores had only been increasing and for that they had Shintaro's respect. There was nothing worse than someone who gave up easily.

Afterwards he and Takao lead Otsubo, Miyaji and Kimura to a deserted street court so that they could show them their new play, because if things went as Shintaro expected them to, then they would be playing against Rakuzan in two days and they wouldn't be able to win without some cards up their sleeves.

“You... holy shit,” Miyaji said once Shintaro had shot after getting the special pass from Takao, while Kimura was standing with his jaw dropped.

Otsubo just nodded and asked, “can you do it during a game?”

And that was the question, wasn't it? Could Shintaro trust Takao that much? That he'd be able to shoot the ball perfectly into his hands? And if the ball didn't go through the hoop, did he trust his team mates to catch the rebound?

“Yes,” he answered, both to himself and Otusbo, who nodded again.

“Do it again,” he said and they did. One more time, two more times, and then with Otsubo and Kimura marking him while Miyaji marked Takao.

He made every single shot.

“That takes a lot of skill. From both of you,” Otsubo said once they were done and Kimura nodded, hitting them both on the back afterwards and Shintaro was pretty sure he had more muscles in his back just from those pats.

“Yeah, congrats. Don't make a fool of yourselves on the court,” Miyaji said, but Shintaro could see him smiling and even looking kind of... proud.

For a second he wanted to tell them “thank you”. Thank you for being there, for being great senpais and simply for... for making Shutoku a team he was proud of.

“You're going to cry, aren't you, Shin-chan?” Of course Takao would ruin the moment. Shintaro hit him on the head.

“No,” he replied curtly.

“Keep them for the final,” Otsubo said.

“I thought Takao would be the crier,” Miyaji said with a mean smirk but Takao just shrugged.

“I don't have a problems with my tears. Crying can be manly too.”

“Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night,” Miyaji responded and then they started leaving the court and even Shintaro started exchanging quips with the others, once they brought him into it.

It was fun and relaxing and it had been a while since he'd remembered playing basketball could be that.

 

Day 5 of the Winter Cup

 

“I punched Haizaki,” was what came out of Aomine's mouth when Shintaro took his call.

After Shutoku had won their game they'd decided to go home instead of going to watch the end of Kaijo's game against Fukuda and Shintaro had been home for less than thirty minutes before his boyfriend had called him. He'd accepted the call with a smile.

He was not smiling then.

“You did what?” He used the voice that didn't come out very often. It was low, articulate and sounded extremely rational. It was the voice that said “don't fuck with me”.

“I punched Haizaki,” Aomine didn't sound as certain. Shintaro was pretty sure that back in his room (he assumed that was where Aomine was) he was passing his hand through his neck.

Instead of asking a second time what the other teen had done – Shintaro had that stupid hope that Aomine would change his answer to “haha, just kidding” if he asked enough times – he sighed because Aomine, no matter what he pretended to be, wasn't actually a violent person and he couldn't imagine him punching Haizaki just because.

“Why did you punch Haizaki?” He asked and this time he didn't use his earlier tone, although he didn't use his normal one either. Aomine better have a good excuse.

“Kise beat Haizaki, so he went outside to wait for him and that's when I punched him. Well, I told him to leave but he said I'd have to use force to do that, so-”

“You used force,” Shintaro interrupted with another sigh.

“I didn't use that much! The dude just went down,” he made a small pause. “Anyway, I don't regret it.”

“Even though Kise would have been able to handle it?”

“How do you know? Maybe-”

“He's not as soft as he looks.”

“I know that; but he has a game tomorrow. I don't.”

“That still doesn't make it okay. People will find out and you'll have a reputation,” Shintaro said, not so much because he wanted Aomine to feel bad (he'd never really liked Haizaki and he was certainly not sorry for him), but because he simply wanted the other to understand the consequences his action might bring to him.

Aomine didn't answer and Shintaro sighed, sitting back down on the bed and leaning against the wall – he'd gotten up after hearing Aomine's announcement.

“Look, I'm not judging you. You did what you thought was right and it's not like he didn't deserve it.”

“He deserved much worse,” Aomine muttered, but Shintaro decided it would be better to simply pretend he hadn't listened to that part.

Part of Shintaro wanted to continue talking about it while the other wanted to change the subject so in the end he decided to leave it to Aomine. He was, after all, the one directly involved. If he wanted to continue talking about it, then they would.

Apparently Aomine didn't feel like talking at all so they stayed silent for some minutes, just hearing each other breathing.

“You're playing against Akashi tomorrow,” Aomine finally said and he was sounding normal again.

“Yes,” Shintaro said but didn't continue, not being sure what exactly he wanted to say. Aomine didn't continue either, and maybe he was now doing what Shintaro had done just some minutes before: letting him decide the course of their conversation.

So he sighed and decided to actually try putting his thoughts into words. “I... I miss the old Akashi,” was what he started with and he bended his knees until they were pressed against his chest. It wasn't a position he took very often, but it felt right at this moment. Aomine still didn't reply, but he could hear him breathing so he continued. “I miss talking to him, laughing with him and even playing shogi, even though I never won. When he changed, it was like I lost my best friend. I miss him.”

Aomine continued on being silent, giving him time to continue and that was what he did. He felt like he wouldn't stop talking now that he'd started. “I feel that if he lost he'd return to his old self, so I want to win against him. And also because this Akashi... I don't like him. He calls himself “absolute” and he thinks only winning is important and maybe I used to think that, but there's also valour in trying and failing.”

He made a pause and this time Aomine broke it, “if you'd been captain at the time, would you have allowed us to skip?”

“No,” he immediately answered and maybe that wouldn't have been his answer a year ago but it was now. “Playing on the court should have been a reward for all the hard work we'd been putting into training, but you stopped giving it. I wouldn't have allowed you on that court, even if that'd meant losing.”

Aomine made a “hmm” sound but didn't actually utter any words.

“Don't you miss the old days?” Shintaro asked and it didn't sound completely like him. It sounded a bit uncertain and if there was one thing Shintaro almost never was, it was uncertain.

“Yeah, but that's the thing about the past – it's not coming back,” that... that actually sounded smart. Shintaro snorted. “What?” Immediately, Aomine went on the defensive.

“I'm sorry, I'm just not used at hearing you sound smart.”

“You're such an ass-hole. Here we were having a moment and you just ruined it.”

“Oh, we were having a moment? I'm sorry then, let's rewind.”

“You can't do that! You ruined it, it's gone, there's not getting it back.”

“Like the old days?” Shintaro asked and he'd been meaning to make it sound like a joke but instead it came out kind of broken and when Aomine answered, he too was sounding different. More mature.

“Yes, but I don't think it's a bad thing. The past gives way to the present and if you snort again I'm hanging up.”

Shintaro gave a small laugh, but it wasn't mocking.

“Holy shit,” he heard on the other side and he raised an eyebrow, even though he knew it would go unseen.

“What? I didn't snort.”

“No, but you laughed. I don't think I've ever heard you laugh. Can you do it again? I need to record it.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes, “now you're the one ruining the moment.”

“No, no, it was really nice. Do it again.”

“I can't just laugh whenever I want.”

“Fine, but mark my words Midorima Shintaro, I will get you to laugh again.”

Shintaro rolled his eyes and tried to not make a big deal out of hearing his first name coming out of Aomine's name, even though he really liked it. It was still too early to start being on a first name basis but maybe one day... “Sure,” he said instead, “good luck.”

That made Aomine start telling the most horrible anecdotes in the history of funny jokes (and really dirty ones) and that was how he spent the evening before his game against Akashi. It was a nice way.

 

Day 6 of the Winter Cup

 

Shintaro wanted to go home. Maybe play the piano for a while, eat some mint chocolate (he always had some saved in his bedroom) and definitely sleep for several hours. But instead they went to watch the rest of the game between Seirin and Kaijo.

They were mostly silence. No one was exactly feeling good. Playing against Akashi was... it was everything he'd been expecting and more but the worst part was without a doubt how Akashi hadn't even allowed them to remain standing. Shintaro had seen his technique used on opponents several times over the years but he'd never been on the receiving end of it. It had felt horrible; like he didn't have any control of his body and, as if it wasn't enough, there was Akashi looking down on him and for just some minutes he'd hated the other boy. Hated him even more when in the end he told him he needed to stop being so compassionate to win and there'd been a part of him that had wanted to say, “is winning worth losing yourself?” but he hadn't and now he was watching the game and he hoped Seirin won, because as great as Kise was, he wasn't going to win against Akashi, while Kuroko and his new light might actually have a chance.

And so the game ended with the result he'd been hoping for (one should probably hope for the team who beat them to continue to beat others but not in this case. Shintaro wanted Akashi to lose) and they started leaving the gym. They didn't talk about the game next day; if Kise's injuries showed themselves to be serious enough for him not to play, then the result was already decided, no matter how much Kaijo fought (and Shintaro believed they will do that).

They'd waited until the gym had mostly emptied – none of them was a big fan of crowds and in the empty space it was easy to see a shining ring on the floor. Shintaro picked it up and recognized it from having seen it several times around Kagami's neck.

“Go on ahead, I have something to do first,” he said and while Miyaji rose an eyebrow at him, no one said anything and so he turned back around to the court. Kagami would surely be looking for it.

And sure enough he saw the red-haired teen looking frantically for something through the chairs just some minutes later and so he went to give him his ring and to share some words.

He left with Takao afterwards and they were silent on the way back to the exit.

“So...” Takao started and Shintaro could see him from the corner of his eye bending his arms behind his head, something he did often, sometimes when he was nervous, others when he was relaxed. Shintaro didn't reply, letting the other continue if he so chose. “Akashi... he sure is something. Well, they all are. Hayama has a pretty strong dribble.”

“He does.”

“And Mibuchi's three-pointers weren't bad either.”

“No, they weren't.”

“I don't think I've ever seen someone as strong as Nebuya on the court.”

“Hm.”

“But Mayuzumi... he didn't look like anything special.”

Shintaro looked sideways at him, “you haven't figured it out?”

Takao just frowned at him and Shintaro went back at looking forward.

“His presence on the court... or lack of it, more precisely, is alike Kuroko's. Akashi has turned him into the new version of the Phantom Sixth Man.”

Shintaro could see that Takao was surprised, but he went back at frowning, “then why didn't he used it?”

“Because you were there. Tomorrow, he'll use it.”

“So it'll be a match between the phantoms...”

“Not exactly,” Takao made a questioning sound at him. “Kuroko's presence is no longer as unremarkable as it was. Tomorrow, from the moment he steps on the court not only will the members of Rakuzan be aware of his presence, but so will the crowd.”

Takao didn't say anything for some seconds, and they were almost out of the building. Suddenly he stopped and once Shintaro noticed he was walking alone, just a couple of seconds later, he too stopped and turned around, waiting silently for Takao to say whatever that was going through his mind.

“Who do you think will win?”

Shintaro didn't answer right away, wanting to choose the right words to express himself. “It is hard to imagine Akashi losing, however... I do believe that if anyone is able to beat him, then it's Kuroko and Kagami.”

Takao nodded, but didn't immediately start walking again. When he spoke again, he wasn't looking at Shintaro, instead more like he was seeing through him.

“It really sucks that we lost.”

“It does. But it wasn't a bad game; we did everything we could and didn't give up until the end.”

“Are you trying to make me or yourself feel better?” Takao asked with a raised eyebrow and Shintaro gave him a small smile.

“Both.”

Takao laughed out loud and then he was walking again. Once he had the door opened and Shintaro had passed through it he said, “I think that's the first time you've smiled at me, Shin-chan. Admit it, you like me. We're frieeeeends,” he drew the last word and almost sang it.

Shintaro decided not to say anything and he was glad that he was a few steps in front, so that Takao couldn't see the smile on his face.

.

At home the first thing he did was eat his chocolate (and then put a reminder on his cell phone to buy some more) and then he got asked by Sachiko to play some music so that she could train the new moves she had learnt in ballet.

Once he had gotten the music down, he spent the remaining time just looking at his sister dancing. While she looked serious, concentrating hard on getting everything right, she also had a free look in her face. She reminded him of a bird, spreading its wings to fly.

After about thirty minutes she stopped, taking deep breaths from her mouth, trying to catch her breath while Shintaro picked up a leaf from a bunch of papers not looking at the song he was choosing. It ended up being “Misery Business” by Paramore and the first time he played it, it didn't sound as it should; he was playing too slowly but after some minutes he finally fell into the rhythm and moved his head with his fingers, getting lost in the melody.

Once he finally stopped he found Sachiko sitting on the sofa looking at him, with her breath back to normal.

“How did the game go?”

“We lost,” he said and it might have sounded expressionless to strangers, but the people who knew him would be able to tell that he wasn't unfeeling about the fact.

“You played against Akashi, right?” She made another question, this time looking at her right hand, which was playing with her thighs.

“Yes,” Shintaro answered and wondered if Sachiko had a point to make with her questions.

She put her feet on the sofa and after wrapping her arms around her knees, put her head on top of it, looking at Shintaro through her bangs, which were getting pretty big. In a few more weeks she wouldn't be able to see much.

“You're different, onii-chan,” she finally said and he just raised an eyebrow because it wasn't like he wasn't aware that some changes had gone through him since starting high school. “You look happier.”

“I just lost,” he said in a deadpan tone and Sachiko rolled her eyes at him.

“Okay, so you're not happy right now, but you don't look devastated either.”

“It's just a basketball game,” he said and she gave him a look and he had to look away because they were both remembering the same thing. They were both remembering how he had started to come home after practise during his second year at Teiko and he'd immediately go outside and start doing hoops, not stopping until his mother would call him for dinner and that was when he had started bandaging his fingers and he barely spent any time with his family and it was... it was a bad time, he recalled. He wanted to say he was sorry to Sachiko, but looking back up she was giving him a look like she knew what he was thinking and that it was unnecessary but hey, it wasn't like he could actual read minds, so he still uttered the words out loud and she got up.

Sachiko hugged him from behind, putting her head turned to the right on top of his and it was nice. Safe. Shintaro closed his eyes and accepted the contact, promising himself to spend more time with her. He was really lucky to have her as a sister, he thought, and then said it out loud. He could feel her smiling.

“You are,” she answered and he wanted to roll his eyes but instead he just smiled fondly, looking at the piano and he still had to answer Aomine's text besides the “I'm home” he'd sent an hour before and tomorrow was the last day of the Winter Cup and then there would be more practising – this time with a new captain because the third years would all be retiring – and it was all changing, but it didn't feel like a bad thing. If anything, he was excited for it and it had been a while since he'd actually been excited about the future.

 

Day 7 of the Winter Cup

 

Takao cried after Otsubo's speech of goodbye and giving the title of captain to Yoshida, a second year that only played on official games sometimes, but that was still a pretty good player and would make a good captain, if not as good as Otsubo.

But going back, Takao wasn't just crying, he was also hugging all the third years and of course Miyaji ended up hitting him and then threatening to still go to Shutoku if they didn't do everything Yoshida and Coach said and if his eyes were glistening no one said a thing (because no one had a death wish).

Coach also said some words, about how they had done their best and how third place was nothing to be ashamed of and how practise would be harder, because if they'd achieved third place, then they could surely move up.

Shintaro did not cry – no matter the lies Takao would start spreading –, but he had to admit he too felt a bit sad. Not because they got third place (some teams didn't even get that far) but because he'd enjoyed playing will all the third years and now he wouldn't be able to do it anymore. And in a few months he'd be a second year himself, being called a senpai and that was... exciting, but also fearful and he remembered thinking just the day before how he was excited for the future and it was still true.

They finally left the locker room and went to watch the match between Seirin and Rakuzan, and it must be faith that they found themselves so close to Kaijo.

The game was... was amazing.

Just as he'd said, Mayuzumi turned out to be the new Phantom Sixth Man but that didn't stop Kuroko from still going against him and he and Kagami were actually able to win against Akashi, and if anyone could do it, it would be those two and it was amazing how much strength Kagami had.

Also, he couldn't believe he had actually screamed for Seirin to win the match (he was going to blame Aomine for that – if the other boy hadn't followed that first one's example (and had he met him before?) then Shintaro wouldn't have done it either), but at least it had worked.

Everyone left the gym feeling happy, even if not as much as Seirin's members and Shintaro was pretty sure he could still hear some of them crying, even though the match had been over by several minutes and they'd already received the trophy and the medals.

It wasn't surprising to find several teams waiting outside for the winners to congratulate Seirin and in no time there were several groups around, with people from all teams. The bigger one was the one with the third years.

Shintaro was standing with Takao when Aomine and Momoi joined them and they both smiled at him; Momoi's was big and happy while Aomine's was more quiet, but still had the feel of being content.

He joined his side and put an harm around Shintaro's waist and his head on his shoulder.

“Don't tell me you're sleepy; you didn't even play,” he said, trying not to focus on how Takao was watching with keen eyes and how there had also been a small lull on the conversations around them, but he heard Miyaji and Otsubo trying to re-start the conversations.

“Satsuki forced me to wake up early.”

“The games only started in the afternoon,” he remarked and everyone around him was back to normal, not caring that there were two guys on rival teams in an embrace just some feet away from them and he relaxed and Aomine's hand squeezed him, like he had felt the tension leaving him and maybe he had.

“That's early,” Aomine answered but it didn't seem like he wanted to continue the conversation very much, so Shintaro let it go and instead tuned in to Takao's and Momoi's conversation. They were, of course, talking about the game they'd just witnessed.

He didn't have time to enter the conversation (and he too had some things to say about Mayuzumi's role in the game) because Seirin was leaving the gym and everyone was clapping – there was even some whistling, but it didn't come from anyone Shintaro knew, at least not by name.

Seirin's members thanked them and he was pretty sure the captain and the coach were trying not to cry – the one known as Iron Heart, who Coach Nakatani kept trying to get to join Shutoku at the training camp wasn't even trying to pretend he wasn't bawling his eyes out and two of his team mates were consoling him and then hugs were being distributed, such as between Aomine and Kuroko (and he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Kuroko that happy) and then he was leaving them to talk to the boy who'd been the first to scream for Seirin to fight.

“Do you have any plans for the break?” Momoi asked him, but before he could answer Aomine was doing it for him, and he'd let go of him when they'd started clapping, but he had put his arm once again around Shintaro's waist and it wasn't that he was uncomfortable; Shintaro had gotten use to having a part of his body almost always in contact with one of Aomine's when they were together, but it still felt different. Maybe it was just the fact that they were around so many people; they'd never been out as a couple with other people besides Aomine's birthday months before and back then they'd only shared a little kiss as greeting.

“I'm going to sleep.”

Momoi rolled her eyes and then asked, “of course Dai-chan, anything else?”

“Eat,” the other boy answered and Shintaro truly couldn't say if he was doing it to annoy Momoi or because he truly believed she wanted to know.

“That's my plan too,” Murasakibara's voice suddenly sounded and there he was, standing between Aomine and Momoi, eating from a packet of crisps.

Aomine snorted before asking, “when aren't you eating?” but at least he wasn't stupid enough to actually try and make Murasakibara share his food – they'd all learnt their lesson at one point or another, even Akashi.

Murasakibara just shrugged but they had all gotten used to it by now. Most people thought Murasakibara wasn't very smart because he didn't tend to participate in most conversations and because he didn't always reply to what one said, even if it was something against him, but it was more that he was too lazy to put effort in something he didn't care. Right now, for instance, he had no desire in bantering with Aomine, so he didn't even try and instead of holding it against him Aomine simply went back on putting his head against Shintaro's shoulder and Shintaro was pretty sure the other boy was nuzzling him. As long as he didn't kiss his neck in public they'd be fine.

“Hello,” he heard behind him and turning his head he found Akashi standing there and suddenly the place beside him was empty (Takao, you coward) and Akashi was now standing between Shintaro and Momoi and he couldn't pretend that the level of tension in the group hadn't just increased, and most was probably coming from him and Aomine's fingers were now moving in circles against his skin and he forced himself to breath and to return the greeting.

“I'm sorry you lost, Akashi-kun,” Momoi said and Akashi... smiled? Shintaro couldn't believe his eyes. Akashi was smiling at Momoi, and it wasn't even one of his “I'll kill you in your sleep” smiles but a real one, one... one like the one he'd sent them sometimes during the first two years at Teiko and apparently Shintaro had been right all along; losing had brought the old Akashi back.

“Welcome back, Akashi,” he said and Akashi directed the smile at him, and it didn't look completely happy; after all, he had just lost a game for the first time in his life, as far as Shintaro knew, but he didn't look devastated or angry either. He just looked like a teen who'd done his best and who was at least proud of that and that was something Shintaro had only started to learn since starting high school.

“Thank you, Midorima,” he answered and the whole group was surprised (minus Shintaro) but no one said anything about Akashi's sudden change of calling.

“Hey, I want to be included too!” Kise was hopping towards them (apparently his knee really was bad) and then there he was, smiling like a fool at everyone – and sending Shintaro and Aomine a smirk and Shintaro was pretty sure Aomine rolled his eyes back at him, even if he hadn't seen it.

“Kise, how is your knee?” Akashi asked and suddenly it was like they were back at Teiko and Akashi was their captain, preocuppied with one of his team members being hurt and by everyone's little smiles, he wasn't he only thinking that.

“The doc says I just need to rest for some weeks. This is all Aomine's fault!”

“What?” Aomine asked in a surprised, and slightly offended tone, and while he maintained his arm around Shintaro's waist he lifted his head and Shintaro was already missing the heat and sometimes it scared him how much he had become used and even depended on the little touches Aomine gave him.

“If I hadn't plaid against you on Nationals, this wouldn't have happened.”

“That's your fault; I didn't force you to play that hard. And you still lost,” Aomine said, sounding smug and truly, Shintaro was surprised no one had punched him yet. Then again, last time someone had tried Aomine had knocked him out so maybe that was for the best.

“Next time I won't!” Kise promised and Shintaro was pretty sure lots of promises like that were being made right now between all the teams standing outside.

“Won't do what, Kise-kun?” Kuroko's voice sounded and it was slightly amusing to see everyone jump just a little at the sound of his voice (him included).

“Lose against Aominechi. Or against you. Or against Midorimachi.”

“Big words coming from a big-” And because Shintaro knew Aomine and knew that whatever he was going to say was going to sound mean and would probably ruin the nice ambient they had going on he put his hand on top of the other's mouth and Aomine glared at him and then licked his hand to which Shintaro grimaced and quickly took it out and if they'd been alone he might have licked his own hand just to get back at Aomine and he was definitely blaming the blue haired teen on how much his thoughts had started taking a dirty turn over the last few months.

“Anyway, congratulations, Kurokochi!” Kise said and then he was putting an arm around Kuroko's neck and holding on, probably with too much strength but Kuroko just did his normal act, which consisted of simply hanging there, not caring.

“Hey, don't hurt him,” and there was Kagami, saving Kuroko from Kise, who immediately started arguing on how he hadn't been hurting Kuroko and it was ironic how the Generation of Miracles was all there (and people were stupid for not considering Momoi one of them) and the one entering their circle was Kagami. It was fitting, really.

“Thought you were going to lose, for a minute there,” Aomine said and he was smirking.

“But we didn't. And we're playing tomorrow; I still have to pay you for the shoes.”

“You're on. But you're going to lose, just like all the other times,” Aomine was still smirking but there was a glint there; he was happy with the prospect of playing against Kagami and it had been a long time since he'd seen the other boy looking that excited for a game and Shintaro smiled softly at him and then put an arm around Aomine's waist and Momoi and Kise sent him knowing looks, while Kuroko and Akashi just smiled quietly and it had been a while since he'd felt not just happy, but like he belonged. It was a good feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's the end! Thanks for all the lovely comments you've left me (because I'm a cry baby, they definitely made my eyes glint) and I hope you enjoyed the ride :)


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